Living With Purpose

I can remember growing up in a happy home and I can recall the carefree spirit that helped me try to enjoy life every day. Then when I began to understand that as good as life is, there are troubles and heartaches that will befall all of us. My parents gave me love and security in my formative years, but even in their wonderful caring ways, they couldn’t shield me from the harsh realities of life.
The natural spirit inside all of us grows fragile and grey long before the hairs on our head. As a young person, we start out with a spirit of anticipation. And it’s our spirit of adventure that helps plot the course of a life well-lived. But before we get to far down the road, life starts blowing its cold cruel winds upon us. Some try to continue, but lose heart because of the resistance they experience. They lose the thrill and zest for living. If they have no parent or close adult friend to encourage and give them hope, they’ll sink into the world’s cess pool of greed, laziness, and selfish ways of living.
The Scripture Job 5:7 says, “People are born for trouble, as readily as sparks fly upward from a fire.” All afflictions must first be allowed by God’s providential will. Since we are prone to finding trouble on our own, the smartest thing we can do is gain God’s favor by trusting Christ as our Lord and Savior.
We must instill a higher idea in the minds of our children. They deserve this and we need to give it to them. We need to teach them to be “glory hunters”. Hunters of God’s glory! I believe that our attitude of mind when we get up in the morning will more times than not, give rise to the amount of youth and passion that’s alive and on fire in our hearts.
Is there excitement in your thoughts or is there a dull pessimism? Jesus said, “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” (Matthew 6:22-23).
How do you see the world in which you live? Are you living in the Spirit of God? If you’re not intentionally letting God’s light and His Spirit expose the Light of His Word, you’re most likely stumbling around in the dark.
A person, regardless of their age, is never happy until their being what they were created to be. Philippians 4:8 is the prescription for godly thinking, positive living, and happiness: “Dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” God is saying to us to look for what’s good in the world! Be a glory hunter!
No one will deny that the world is a broken place and there’s plenty of ugliness all around. But traces of God’s goodness can be seen everywhere. We choose what we focus on! This simple practice has the power to restructure and reform your life.
The concept of positive thinking isn’t appreciated enough because the negative things of the world seem to overwhelm it. But what a person focuses on tends to grow. Think about God’s goodness, glory, and grace! You’ll start to see it everywhere!