There are a few things I\ncan think of off the top of my head that has helped me ferret through the\nclutter surrounding my purpose. Your list might be longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1 Peter 4:10<\/strong> \u201cAs each one has\nreceived a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of\nthe manifold grace of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is an extension of my\npast<\/strong>: I\nkeep talking about “Each current season using the last season to build\ntoward the next season.” I believe it is the building block of everything\nGod has in mind for us. We are never done changing. God is always stretching us\nin ways we sometimes don’t expect. I believe with each move, God does not\ndiscard our past experiences but uses them to create new experiences. To not\nleverage the past is to waste valuable knowledge. If what I want to do next\ndoes not apply at least some of my past experiences, then I need to question my\ndecision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I especially believe this is true with our darker experiences. It is at those times when things didn’t go as planned or even worse. These are the roots of compassion. These are the experiences that allow us to relate to others. The most influential and most relatable outreaches I have known were the result of past trauma. People who say, “God brought me through this and, God will do the same for you.”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n James 1:17<\/strong> \u201cEvery good thing given\nand every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,\nwith whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have the right\nexperience<\/strong>: I am all for learning. Learning should be a lifelong endeavor.\nWe should be continually evolving. I believe our purpose will dovetail nicely\nwith the experiences and knowledge we already possess. There will be new skills\nand new knowledge, but they will be growth on our existing base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If what I am thinking about\ndoing requires me to do things that I know I don’t like or know I have trouble\ndoing, then I won’t be happy long. Sacrifice is a good thing, but the constant\nsacrifice is suffocating. How can we joyfully serve others if we are struggling\njust doing the everyday tasks? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Romans 11:29<\/strong> \u201cfor the gifts and the\ncalling of God are irrevocable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the right time<\/strong>: There is a saying,\n“timing is everything.” I believe that is true with your ultimate\ncalling. God will spend a great deal of time grooming you for what He has in\nstore. He will help you develop new skills, meet the right people, expose you\nto new environments, and instill in you a longing for change. Only when the\ntime is right will He nudge you into action. If you feel that your decision is\nforced or premature, it might be because it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A caveat to this is that you can not let fear hold you back. I believe you will know the difference between homeostasis and lousy timing. Homeostasis is a natural desire to resist change. We all deal with it. God will give us the longing for change that will help us overcome this. Bad timing is another issue. Is God giving you discomfort that says, “This is the right thing, but the wrong time.”? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m qualified<\/strong>: There is a lot to\nthis. We typically think of hard skills when it comes to qualification. It is\nalways preferable to have the necessary hard skills before embarking on a new\ndirection. But it is not the highest requirement. We learn hard skills. If you\ndo not have all of them, do you at least have most of them? Do you have both\nthe aptitude and passion for learning what you don’t have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soft Skills are a\ndifferent matter. Mostly these make us, us. We like numbers versus words. We\nprefer to be alone rather than with a group. We obsess over details, or we are\ncomfortable with averages. We want to interact directly with others to spread\nthe gospel, or we want to enable others to do that task. Do we prefer to lead,\nor do we prefer someone else takes on the burden? Your soft skills have to be in\nline with your calling. If you push yourself for too long outside of your\nnatural comfort zone, you will burn out. No one can be someone else for an\nextended time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Corinthians 12:4<\/strong> \u201cNow there are\nvarieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is fun and exciting<\/strong>: Life is too short not to have fun. God would never give us a purpose for which we do not feel a genuine passion. I should ask myself, \u201cIf I did this for the rest of my life, would it make me happy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is hard to find:<\/strong> Let’s face it, folks, we’re looking for a Unicorn. The great news is that God created a Unicorn just for you. It’s out there. For me, the hardest part is personal honesty. I get this idea in my head of what my purpose should look like, and then I force-feed my answers to fit the concept. It is harder for me to let the answers dictate the direction. Sometimes the answers are not there. When it comes down to it, I don’t know myself well enough. That is when I have to ask others who know me well. What they see in me might not be what I see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We all go through\nseasons in our lives. These seasons are both a continuation of God\u2019s plan in\nour life and a preparation for the next season. Don\u2019t look at your purpose as\nthis static, one-time calling that should drive you for the rest of your life. There\nshould be a consistent thread to all that God wants you to do, but there is\nalso a variability to the tasks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the seasons in my\nlife was the prison ministry, which taught me to share the Gospel. God used\nthat experience in other endeavors. I wasn\u2019t changing directions; I was honing\nskills. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do I start defining my purpose in life?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[10,12,9],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purpose","tag-business","tag-christian","tag-purpose"],"yoast_head":"\n