Most Christians want to serve Christ. Once we admit that to ourselves, we immediately say, but. We want to help in our way, to the people we choose, using our disposable resources within our timetable. We do not wish to serve ungrateful people in a faraway land, using up our hard-earned vacation time. Thinking this is not the same as saying it, so we’re good. Right?
How often do we fit the Gospel into our situation; rather than fit our circumstances into the Gospel?
PURPOSE
Mother Teresa, in her book, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living, wrote, “I am a little pencil in God’s hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything, and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil, and He has to sharpen it a little more.”
Paul reminds us that if we genuinely pursue the will of God, no matter the outcome, we can count on it serving God’s purpose. It is not for us to determine the time or method God will choose to use us for His Kingdom.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
God created us to do good works predestine for us to accomplish. Preparation does not mean just our time and money but also our gifts, passions, education, experiences, and even where we are. God will sometimes send you; mostly, He will use you exactly where you are.
Ephesians 1:11 “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”
I have a purpose. I was created as a unique creature with specific skills and afforded specific resources to accomplish an individual task. But I have free will in choosing both if and how I will respond. So I can accept that I have this unique purpose without actually working to advance it.
Tom Shuler wrote an excellent book entitled “Metaporphyx.” He tries to clarify the process of both understanding and fulfilling God’s purpose in our lives. It looks at this purpose as not a thing or a single event but a continuous process that repeats itself, each cycle building on the last. A pivot point punctuates each cycle or season. A pivot point is a critical event that causes us to both reassess and redefine our direction. However, the redefinition of our direction does not alter our purpose. The purpose remains the same, but the direction constantly changes based on the seasons of our lives.
So again, what is our purpose?
HINT
John 15:1-27,“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. “
Our purpose has to do with bearing fruit. So, what does the Bible say about fruit?
James 2:14-26, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. …”
First of all, the fruit we are looking for comes from the Spirit. Not every good work qualifies, just those that are created out of an abiding love and obedience to the Spirit. Second, it is active and not passive. We must do something. We can not just say, “God loves you, go in peace.” We must minister to their actual needs. “So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Dead, as in entirely worthless.
To summarize up to this point, I have a unique and specific purpose for which I was created, and that purpose requires that I do something material. We also know.
Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
I end this thought knowing that whatever my purpose, I will be successful if I abide in Christ and diligently search. As I’m still working on the whole purpose, God has assured me that I will eventually succeed.
Psalm 67, “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us— so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.”