Are you a purposeful Christian, or are you waiting on purpose?

[Demetria]

Here's a question for you:
Are you a purposeful Christian, or do you just wait on purpose?

Sometimes when we don't know for sure what our purpose is, we should begin using what is already at our disposal- the obvious things- and get going, being about our Father's business- whether it brings fame or pleasure (beside the point).
God has given us each something we can do in the interim while we wait on what we think is our tremendous destiny and purpose on earth...when actually it could be something so simple that we overlook it in our search for something bigger or grander.

It could be, for instance, that our destiny is to make others smile, to bring sheer joy to others through comedy and laughter, or to uplift the broken hearted through encouragement, or to be a teacher or tutor for those that need a little extra help with life, or to be a giver and reach out to the needy at your local food bank, or to to creatively bless your own church with a song or musical selection, or to be a blessing to your neighbor who just had a baby by cooking them your wonderful pumpkin pie that only YOU can cook the way you do because God has blessed YOU with the ability to cook somethin' up YUMMY.

You see?

What is in your hands today?

[Wendie Carwise]

This subject was such a journey of discovery for me.

I used to constantly stress about whether I was walking according to God's ordained purpose for me. I'd continually pray about it while wandering aimlessly through multiple "pastures" diligently seeking to establish whatever it was. Throughout my searching, God mercifully used me purposefully in different ways and through a multitude of circumstances. Each time I discerned a specific area or place of fruitfulness I believed that I had finally discovered my purpose. But God would abruptly move me, set me aside, or use me in unexpected or completely new ways. Each season, I've always come away wondering exactly what my purpose could be. I was confused by how so many believers seemed to "hear from God" early on in their spiritual journeys concerning exactly what their purpose in Him was to be. How God led them seemed to fit perfectly into their presumed purpose. Yet the path God was leading me down seemed schizophrenic at best. I became weary, disheartened and frustrated from all my searching and related missteps.

I suspect God needed me to go through that entire process before He answered my cries for clarity through this revelation:


Philippians 3:10-14 (Amplified)
[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.


What a sense of freedom that revelation has brought me! I now understand that my ordained purpose is all encompassing and dependent upon my experiential knowledge of the Living Christ. Simply put, I was created to bring my Heavenly Father glory through intimate connection to His Son. As I faithfully, hopefully, and lovingly cleave to God's Spirit while walking according to His Word, I can rest in His promise to order my steps and arrange my life according to His design. I have come to need no further enlightenment beyond that purposeful goal.


1 Corinthians 10:31 (Amplified)
So then, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you may do, do all for the honor and glory of God.


So yes, I am in full agreement with sister Demetria that we ought to go about our daily lives taking advantage of EVERY opportunity to glorify and bless our Lord and God . . . in thought, word, attitude, behavior, plans, decisions, and choices . . . through Spirit led worship and service . . . with loving stewardship of our time and resources . . . whether others acknowledge and praise our efforts or reject and condemn them . . . in ways mundane or spiritually significant . . . through seasons of abundance or want . . . whether experiencing overcoming victory or brokenness and failure . . . in times of immense joy or intense sorrow . . . until we know God completely as we are completely known by Him.

For this is our highest purpose!