Congratulations! You’re here. Every day is a gift from God, and you’ve lived through 210 days in 2019! The Lord has a purpose for you being here. I wanted to remind you of that on day 210. What do you know? Ephesians 2 talks a great deal about purpose. He knew before hand we would have questions about our purpose. That we would want to know why and for what we where placed on this earth to do?
As a kid I was (still am) fascinated about life and the unknown. From the start I had questions and I wanted answers. Over time, I found most of the answers to the questions I had where right there in the pages of the Bible. Though it wasn’t always crystal clear. The answers were there but felt hidden at first glance. Until one day while reading the passage again the answers to my questions jumped from Ephesians 2:10.
My question concerning purpose was finally answered. You know it’s no surprise that we all have questions. Questions about life, love, what topping of pizza should I order, should I ignore that rude comment or speak my mind? But I would say the most longing question for any human is “What is my purpose?” By grace I’m nearing a quarter of a century and I’ve been in search since then for that answer. Lord, ” What is my purpose?” Quickly days turned to years and I felt like I couldn’t connect to heaven’s WiFi. Then, it hit me that the Bible was the WiFi I needed to connect on to reach God and get my answer!
When I read Ephesians 2 my mind was blown away! It reached the depths of my soul and gave me the revelation of why we’re all here. The Word of God reveals to us that “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (v 10). If you didn’t know you had a purpose this is your moment of awakening. According to Ephesians 2:10, my friend you have a purpose! A God-given purpose. The God of the universe predestined you before the beginning of time to co-partner with Him to do something Major. Purpose is never minor; it carries a lot of weight and it takes faith to live out. Everything the Lord does is major! Even the very things that are small to God are not small to us. For example, in 2 Peters 3:8, we are told that a “Day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” to God. Say, what now?! You heard right, 1000 years is so small to the Lord He views it as only being “one day!” The spanish translation “un dia.” Your Purpose is major and it will take a lifetime to fulfill it. If things are not following through for you don’t give up! What’s valuable requires patience to process. What’s major needs time, an appointed time, for that matter, to be revealed!
I find many of us get anxious even talking about purpose. We’re not comfortable with the idea of choosing to pursue “one” major thing for the rest of our lives. ” What if I make the wrong choice? I’ve been there and said that. The thing is none of us want to go through life doing or pursuing the wrong things. How come God doesn’t just tell us directly what to choose? So we could avoid the risk of making a mistake and prevent our headaches and sleepless nights. Even when we read verses like Ephesians 2:10 we say “But Lord I need the specifics.” The suspense of not knowing all the details is nerve wrecking, I know! Not knowing the whole picture and what our purpose supposed to look like. While God probably is watching from heaven and having a good laugh at how much we overthink this whole thing called purpose.
“Haven’t I told you all you need to know?” -God.
The Bible is key in knowing our purpose and tapping into it. God has given us a manual that guarantees us to finding and fulfilling His purpose for us. That word finding… We equate with having to search something out. When we think of purpose often we think of it as arriving to this significant destination. And so without thinking people view purpose as a destination or state of arrival to something major. When people see purpose as destination they become stagnant and complacent. They focus on one thing and neglect everything else. For many years we have complicated purpose to the point where we believe if we only do this ONE THING, or ACCOMPLISH this one thing then we’ve reached purposed. Yeah, let’s take another look at that verse shall we. ‘ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works‘ You see that? It says here, created in Christ Jesus to do, to do what? “Greater works.” Nowhere did the verse tell us to reach a destination or to do one particular thing. We see here that purpose is neither a destination nor singular. Purpose is plural and it’s also a verb. It’s not a one time event, but life long state of being and doing.
I want you to understand that purpose is not your destiny. It’s the pathway to reach your destination. Our destination as Christians is the same. We who are in the family of Christ Jesus are destined to be with Him in heaven. The Bible says in Philippians 3:20, ” But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus himself said to His disciples before ascending to heaven, ” In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” ( John 14:2). We all share one destination but we all have a specific purpose to fulfill before we get there. I’m not saying purpose is the way to Heaven. We know there’s only one way to Heaven and that is Jesus! But what I mean is that in a sense purpose is finishing the race the Lord appointed for us to run. God holds us accountable to live on purpose and that is what He will judge believers on.
“Did you do what I told you to do?” -God
We can only run this race and finish it strong by doing the will of the Father. Which leads me to the last thing I wanted to share with you today. There’s something in particular God wants each of us to do for His glory. But at the core of it all just as we share a common destination we also share a common purpose. God’s common purpose for us is to live according to His will each day. ‘To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God‘ (Micah 6:8). Scout ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this broken and lost world. Share His gospel with all people and shine the light of Christ over all the earth! At the core, our purpose is not as complicated as we make ourselves to believe it to be? This very moment you and I both can recognize and manifest our God-given purpose every day. For one, the Spirit of God lives in us! ” It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us” ( 2 Corinthians 1:21).
God‘s purpose for us is to be like Jesus every day and in every way. To uphold the same character of the One who called us in speech and in action. This is the major movement, mandate, and purpose we have been honored and chosen to carry out on this earth! For the glory of the Lord. Manifesting your purpose is shining bright the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When you decide to say “yes” to Him and no to “them.” Them being world, sin, and the devil. It’s putting others before yourself and finding ways to be a blessing to someone else.
It’s an the little acts of kindness you do for those you know, and strangers you meet on your way to work, in the grocery line or at a church service on Sunday morning. Manifesting your purpose is introducing Truth living in Truth, and proclaiming TRUTH in the low and high places that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one can come to the Father accept through Him. He alone is able to forgive sin and make souls New Again. Who can can change our ” mourning into joy, ” our “pain into purpose, ” and bring the “dead back to life.” This is Purpose“ To live like Christ, share His good news with others, and live it out in our own lives every single day until He call us home. You have purpose! It’s in you. You don’t have to search for it—it is your stamp of approval, that you are his chosen one. God’s Spirit lives in you and so you can’t why run away from purpose. It’s inevitable! All you can do is embrace it and start manifesting your purpose today!
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses“
– 1 Timothy 6:12
-JLP
Stay encouraged!
“It only gets better form here.”
-JLP
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