As a Christian I often hear the phrase “God’s purpose for my
life” or question, “Lord what is your will for my life?” I hear it at church,
amongst friends, and admittedly out of my mouth multiple times. As a young
person in Christ that is one of our chief desires which is to know His will and
purpose for our lives. “Lord, I wanna be your hands and feet! Lord, use me!”
These are all great desires, Godly desires. As I was pondering over this
constant questioning, the Holy Spirit helped me realize that we’ve been asking
the wrong question. The wrong question, how? Well instead of asking, “Lord what
is your purpose for MY life?” we should simply ask, “Lord what is Your
purpose?”
Wait, why? What’s the difference? The difference is this: the
former question shifts the attention to YOU and not HIM. What’s the problem
with that? Well the problem is that you don’t matter. Ouch. Yes I’ll say it
again: you don’t matter. See when we were Born
Again in Christ we
were given a new nature. In fact, by His word in 1 Corinthians 5:17 we
know that we are all new creatures in Christ upon genuine belief in Him. How
did I get this new status and what happened to the old me? Well the old me, the
person I’ve always been, the person I knew myself as before Christ is dead. As
Christians, when we decided to partake in His salvation we gave our lives away.
We entered into a transaction with God the Father that said, “I’ll trade my
life for Your Son Jesus’ life.” When we believe that Jesus took our punishment
on the cross thereby taking our sin away we consequently give our lives away as
well. If you want to keep your life that is fine you just must keep your sin
and the punishment that goes along with your sin as well, which is Eternal
death – Hell. But since we have entered this transaction bought by a currency
of belief and faith we now live a life that is not our own. We continue to live
Jesus’ life for Him through his Holy Spirit.
Still confused about your purpose? No need. According to 1Timothy
2:4 we know that God’s will, God’s purpose is “for all men to be saved and to
come into the knowledge of who He is.” So there you have it. That is your
purpose – to know God and make Him known. This is the gospel. This is why God
sent His Son Jesus: So that ALL men may KNOW Him. This must be a daily
practice. We must daily remind ourselves of the gospel and submit to living out
the gospel. Every day we must say, “Lord what is your will? What is Your
purpose for today?” Here is a great exercise I use that helps me truly get in
the mindset of living out His purpose. I reflect on the gospel and my new life
in Jesus and think, “If Jesus had the chance to be reborn as a 22 year old
woman, born to Russell and Dierdra Hall, live in Houston Texas and work as a
Consultant for SunGard Energy, what life would He live?” If Jesus had the
opportunity to have the dynamics of my life, what would He do? This should not
be a hypothetical question. This should be the question that we ask ourselves
daily. This should not be a hypothetical question because this is not a
hypothetical situation. This is the actual situation. Jesus came, was crucified
and buried, but rose on the third day and is now ALIVE. Where is He ALIVE? In
you in me. In the hearts and lives of His followers. He is alive in us. Because
I live, He lives.
Until next time,
Camille4Christ
