This is the heart cry of every person.
Whether you are a young adult at the beginning of your journey wondering where to turn, or older, more settled in life but perhaps at a mid-life crossroads, and knowing a wrong fork could have huge negative implications for you and your family. Or you are at an advanced stage in life, and you struggle to find a purpose for getting out of bed in the morning. Wherever you find yourself, a strong sense of divine purpose could be the key to that innate cry of your heart for purpose.
The greatest thing anyone of us can do, is to believe in Him. How’s that for an answer to the western world’s greatest desire of self glorification and success?
The Heidelberg catechism portrays the ultimate purpose of our being—to glorify God. The disciples came to Christ in John 6, and inquired as to what it would take to be a great wonder worker. Jesus simply replied, “the work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (verse 30). Do you want to make your life count? Outside of any gift, talent, innate ability, resource or influence you may have, Jesus sets the record straight in His response to the disciples. The greatest thing anyone of us can do, is to believe in Him. How’s that for an answer to the western world’s greatest desire of self glorification and success?
Believing in Christ is truly the greatest achievement, yet it’s not something you earn, it’s freely given. Isn’t that so true of life? Life’s most important things, love, health, children and family are things that are freely given.
Christ is all. And I want to share with both the steadfast believer and those readers who have not believed yet how to anchor your purpose in Christ in this and the next article I write.
For those who haven’t made the commitment to faith yet, my prayer for you the reader is that you would know Christ. If you haven’t taken that step can I ask you to pray this salvation prayer now:
GOD, I WANT TO BE IN RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU. I want there to be peace between us. I do not want my moral disobedience to create distance between us any longer. So Lord, I ask you to help me to believe and internalize the fact that Jesus willingly died and then came back from the dead three days later. Enable me now to repent, turn away from my sinful habits, yield to the will of your Holy Spirit, and desire to obey your teachings. God, though I do not deserve it, give me a new nature, one that resembles you —allow me, by faith, to pledge my life to you alone, through the name of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen (Excerpt from Salvation Prayer by Pastor Jonathan Knight)
How about you who are saved, born of the kingdom from above. Is your purpose automatically founded in Christ, I ask? I think not. The source of your sense of being may need to be reevaluated from time to time. Some of us have taken our eyes off the prize: Christ. Recently I spoke to a middle aged man who shared with me his journey. He had started running the race well in his youth. But after a powerful transformative experience in Christ, he got successful. Demand for his time and esteem that went along with it drove him further and further away from the sacred place of devotion in God. He found he was too busy too often, too tired too frequently, to gain his strength from the Lord. Accolades and others opinions fuelled his fervour, and propelled him on. Thankfully God finally got his attention. On the brink of losing his family, and a near death episode, his focus turned back to God. Slowly but surely, God’s whispers of affirmation and purpose, soothed his sole, and calmed his fears….In those weeks and months of forced down time, it was as if he could hear God saying “this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Hearing the voice of the father repurposed him. Today he knows why he is on earth. To bring glory to God with his life. To allow his career be a conduit for his God given talents to shine. To be a father to his children, and a present husband to his wife.
Have you lost your way? Forgotten your purpose, or confused about the future? Find it at the feet of Jesus. Commit your life to him. Recommit your ways to him. Slow down if you need to, connect with other like minded followers of Christ in community, find a church that feeds your soul, and let Christ be the reason for your being.
– Pastor Olu Jegede