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PURPOSE!
I think we try too hard sometimes. We try too hard to make things happen and we get disappointed with ourselves when they don’t. Maybe it’s just me. I know though, that sometimes God has to tear us down before He can build us back up.
Last week I wrote a column called “like a loser”. Now it seems like everyone thinks I’m backsliding or should be on a suicide watch or something. Truthfully, I’m gonna be alright. I just write what’s on my mind and in my heart at the time. When I started this column, I wanted it to be real. I didn’t want to sugarcoat things. I wanted to write about every day situations that a Christian goes through in their lives. Hey, I’m by far not perfect, so I’ll have my highs and lows along the way, but I know that I’ll always have a loving Savior who is willing to welcome me back with grace and mercy.
God’s been dealing with me over the past couple of weeks. He’s been trying to get me prepared for what He has in store for my life. I’ve been getting ready for the Victory Outreach International World Conference next month and God always does amazing things there, but He’s starting early with me. He’s been shouting at me in that “Still Small Voice” trying to get me “Motor-Vated” and reconfirming that vision and purpose in my life.
It seems like that word “PURPOSE” has been shoved down my throat lately. So I guess, it’s time I addressed it.
I remember as a kid I used to dream of being a huge rock star or being a professional basketball player. I used to dream of being someone important. I used to dream of making it big. Reality has a way of slapping you in the face and bringing you back down to earth. It says, “You’re not smart enough. You’re not strong enough. You’re too shy. You’re not pretty enough. You’re skins not the right color. You’re not......” And it goes on and on.
Well, I have something to say to reality. “My God makes the impossible possible. He uses the foolish to profound the wise. He makes the least the greatest and the last to be first.”
Purpose! I truly believe that every single one of us wants to have a purpose in this life. We want something to strive for. The dictionary defines purpose as “something set up as an object or end to be arrived; an aim; a goal.” Life is about having a purpose. If we have nothing to go towards, then we are just wasting our time here on earth.
I think about the Apostle Paul. What kept him going? What kept him serving Christ? It was that prize that he had not yet attained, the prize of the high calling.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
Paul knew his purpose. It was to spread the gospel to the whole world. He was a great man of God and had a great calling, but he realized that he wasn’t perfect. He had flaws like each of us do, but he didn’t let those flaws hold him back from finishing the race.
Philippians 3:12-14 says, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
We get distracted from that purpose He has placed in our lives at times. We put God behind us instead of in front and we end up wondering why we are living defeated. It’s time we switch that around. We need to “Put Him First” in everything we do and leave our past behind. Yeah, we’re going to still mess up now and again, but His grace is more than sufficient.
God has given you a purpose. He has called you out of darkness and brought you into His marvelous light. He loves you and has so much in store for your life. He wants to do so much through you. Will you let Him do that work in your life?
w/muchluv,
geno
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