Calling & Your Heart’s Desires: Fixer Upper’s Joanna Gaines On How God Led Her To HGTV

Joanna Gaines and her husband Chip are the talent behind HGTV’s “Fixer Upper.” Together, they help families renovate their homes and create spaces they can love. In this video, Joanna shares how God led her to the work she does now.

Calling and Your Heart’s Desires

God can speak to us about our calling through our deepest desires. But how do we let God lead us in those desires? A few things strike us from Joanna’s story.

1. Our truest desires—those desires that God has knit into the fabric of our truest self, as He created us–are important to God.

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4

He fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them. – Psalm 145:19

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. – Matthew 5:6

2. Our own brokenness can make it difficult to get in touch or pursue with our truest desires. Pursuing our desires can feel risky or difficult. In Joanna’s case, over time, she grew out of her insecurities. She also received encouragement to step out in pursuit of her dreams, despite the possibility of failure.

3. It requires fellowship with God to know when he calls us to “go” and when he asks us to lay down our desires for a season. Joanna’s friendship with God—time spent in his presence, allowing his “Father heart” to speak into her life—created space for her to hear and receive his promises and direction. Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, promises that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6).” Our calling is to trust his instruction and know that he is good, and thus submit ourselves to his ultimate work in us. We don’t have to strive to accomplish our desires, but we do have to walk (and work) in faith and obedience.

Read more about how calling relates to our deepest desires: