Week Four - What is Your Purpose?

Remember I said my word for 2022 is purpose - to live with purpose to make a difference? Well, a significant part of living with purpose is knowing your purpose! Because we have a natural bent toward self-centeredness, we tend to look for purpose within ourselves. But Henry Blackaby wrote, "Only the power of God can free us from our natural self-centeredness and reorient us toward the mission of God."

Sometimes I think people believe following God is dull, too hard, unrealistic, or too limiting. Maybe they feel God isn't interested in them or doesn't understand the world they live in. Perhaps they don't see life further than the end of their nose or have taken a few hits and want to draw into themselves for protection. But for whatever reason, some people do find it hard to trust God and leave self behind. 

When they do that, life's purpose becomes small and limited. Living life only to please self makes self a god. And self can be a daunting task-master who is never satisfied, constantly questioning, demanding, and volatile. Self changes with every whim and rarely finds satisfaction.

But compare self with God. God is huge and unlimited. He is The God and a loving Father who blesses His children with love and mercy. He is always faithful and giving and never changes. He fills our hungry soul and meets our every need with a deepness of understanding as only He can do. We could go on and on about the attributes of God, and in every case, we would see He is of incomparable greatness when placed beside ourselves.

Why does this matter? Well, if my purpose is to live for myself, I'm wasting my time. But if my purpose is larger than myself, I have more to look forward to, more meaning, more influence, and God can use me for His mission.

It isn't hard to see God's heart - His mission. He came seeking to save and is not willing that any perish. Missions is His mission. Yet, when we ask what aspects of the Christian life are most important, we sometimes fail to prioritize missions. That is because we have lost track of why God saved us in the first place. We were not saved from our sin to simply qualify for heaven. We were delivered from sin to have a relationship with Him through which He carries out His mission to redeem the lost world.

Henry Blackaby writes, "There is no need to pray that God would come in power. That is the only way He ever comes. We need hearts that are so responsive to Him that He will choose to demonstrate His power through us. Is your heart so filled with love for God that you are watching for the first opportunity to say with Isaiah, 'Here am I. Send me!'?"

So that defines my purpose - to be used of God in His mission. Some days, that might be speaking directly to someone about the Lord, or it might be just a kind word or a loving action on another day. It could be doing my job as unto the Lord or humbling serving with a giving heart. But however God designs each day to play out, my purpose remains the same - to be used of Him.  

So, what is your purpose? Are you looking for opportunities to serve? Are you willing to give of yourself to others? Do you see that God asks each of us to be involved? Are you living with purpose to make a difference in the world around you?