What You Were Made For: Finding Your Purpose
All of us have questioned why we were put on this earth. What was I made for? Am I living out the purpose God destined for me? All too often, we get caught up in the specifics of that ‘calling’ and if we are doing that will perfectly or not.
1 Peter 4:10 TPT
“Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-colored tapestry of God’s grace.”
We get so caught up in worry over what the right path is for our lives. Who is that one person we’re supposed to spend the rest of our life with? What is the perfect job He will have us in? We allow our thoughts to consume us, worrying that we will make the right decision.
Our purpose isn’t something we search out, research or prepare for. You walk in faith and allow the Lord to prepare those good works for you in your everyday life. As you go about your life, look for those ways to serve and love others and do the good works He sets in your path.
Ephesians 2:10 TPT
“We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!”
God is not hiding your purpose from you and keeping it from you so that you have to stumble around and try to find it. God is activity guiding you toward that purpose. The closer you get to Jesus, the more He reveals to you what you specifically are supposed to do.
In reality, our purpose can be boiled down to two things: Love God, love people. We’re all called to the same thing!
Love God
Matthew 22:37-40 TPT
“Jesus answered him, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you.’ This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is like it in importance: ‘You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself.’ Contained within these commandments to love you will find all the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.”
Your first mandate is to love God. If you accomplish all the things in this life and you don’t have a closeness with the Lord, you have nothing. Be what God has already created you to be, right where He has planted you now.
“We don’t choose our purpose; we choose God and our purpose gets revealed.” - Jim Boyd
Love People
Start walking and your purpose will meet you. Just live your life for Jesus, get close to Him, and He will put others in your path that you can show His love to. Be kind. Be patient. Be humble. Allow the Lord to move your heart with compassion. Sounds like the fruit of the Spirit, doesn’t it? Well, it is!
The fruit of His Spirit is so foreign in our chaotic world, and our purpose is to love people. We get to be His hands and feet to a generation who is perishing. Don’t worry about the semantics, just be faithful with what you have right in front of you right now.
Exemplify Jesus in Everything You Do
This ties into the first two. Love Jesus and act like Him. That’s what it means to exemplify—be an example, embody the characteristics of the one you are trying to imitate and illustrate. This is our calling, to embody who Jesus is in all that we do.
Your purpose isn’t about you anyway—it’s about Him, his glory and his kingdom, right where we are. This takes off the pressure. You don’t have to be the most visible or amazing, you just have to be a faithful steward of the gifts God has given you.
Just be His.
