Day - 40 Living With Purpose
Living on purpose is the only way to really live. Everything else is just existing.
The three main questions most people have as they come to discover a purpose in their lives are: “Who am I” which is about your identity” The second is “Do I matter” which speaks to our need of feeling important. The last is “What is the place in my life?” This deals with our desire to make a difference or an impact with our lives.
The answer to all three of these questions are answered in the five purposes that we have been studying.
As we come to the last day of the 40 Days of Purpose, and we look at what we have covered, it’s a lot of material isn’t it? It raises the question of what we do with all of this and how do we apply it in our daily lives. What ’s the next step?
I think you’d agree that what we have learned, we are responsible for. It would be easy to get distracted and continue doing the very same things that we did before we started the 40 day journey. But it’s not that easy. We cannot go back. can we. We now know too much.
Hopefully the light bulb has come on and you have had a few “ah-ha” moments on the journey. God is so willing to work with us and help us if we just cooperate. The fact is that it’s easy to get off course. This will take us doing our part to work at this, take action to develop some new habits and focus.
One of the ways we can better “internalize” our purpose is to develop a Life Purpose Statement. It’s a statement that summarizes God’s purpose for your life. It’s not a list of goals. It’s not a “to-do” list. As a matter of fact I have heard it said that sometimes it’s better to have a “not-to-do” list, but we’re not talking about that either.
Your Life Purpose Statement is a way, in your own words to write down and affirm a commitment to the five purposes in your life that you have been learning about over the last six weeks.
It’s a statement that points the direction of your life. It’s a statement that speaks to what you are going to do with your time, life and money, and it also addresses the areas of your life that you are not going to do certain things..where you may need to stop spending money, time, or resources.
It’s a statement that defines success for you. You write down what you believe is important, not what your friends, co-workers or the world thinks… it’s what you think. It clarifies your values. It clarifies your roles, and it is a statement that expresses your “shape.” It reflects the unique ways that God made you to serve him.
It’s easier to prepare a Life Purpose Statement if you answer the Five Greatest Questions:
- What will be the center of my life?
- What will be the character of my life?
- What will be the contribution of my life?
- What will be the communication of my life?
- What will be the community of my life?
An example of a short life statement can be like this.
- “My life purpose is to worship Christ with my heart, serve him with my shape, fellowship with his family, grow like him in character, and fulfill his mission in the world so he receives glory.”
You get the idea. The focus is on God’s purposes for your life, not just your plans.
The question is this: Will you be a person used for his purposes in this generation? The greatest joy will be the day that we stand before our Father and he embraces us and says ” well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.” We have the opportunity here on earth to bring him pleasure, enjoy and minister to his family, become Christlike, and share the Good News with others. May His purpose be released in us today!
Onward to Day 41 in His purpose….