Living With Purpose
Do you ever question God’s purpose and will for your life? Or in your later years, do you wonder if you have accomplished what God wanted you to do? One of the great statements ever made of a person can be found in Luke 2:52, “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.” Living a purposeful and committed life requires devotion to the mission in which you were created. In my 25 years in the ministry, most all of it has been in a bi-vocational capacity. I have had to learn that it’s not my full-time job and preaching on the side. I have realized in time that my business was to be then and is now, preaching the gospel. I work secular jobs to pay my expenses. Everyone ought to consider their secular employment as only the means for earning a living, so that your main focus, if you’re a Christian, is to give yourself to the work of Christ and building God’s Kingdom. It’s important to have full-time religious workers, but if the world is ever to be won to Christ, it will be the rank-and-file Christians, who take seriously God’s work and give their best to it.
We may hear how people have made sacrifices to follow Jesus. Actually, no one ever left anything for Jesus without being fully and completely rewarded many times and in many ways. We become more in this world by following Jesus than we could ever become without him.
I can recall when my children, Anna Marie and David were very young and we were attempting to do something technically challenging. There was a little hesitation on all our parts, and then Anna Marie finally blurted out to her little brother, “David, you’ve got to get with it!” She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years-old, but she realized that if you’re going to accomplish something you’ve got to commit to it and do it the right way. If we are to fulfill God’s plan for our lives, we must “get with it” for God.
Hebrews 13:21 says, “May He equip you with all you need for doing His will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him. All glory to Him forever and ever! Amen” In keeping with the spirited thought of “Getting with it for God” there are five things we must do to accomplish this:
Minimize your fears. Fear often paralyzes a person from trusting their God-given instincts. And even more, fear will quench the Spirit of God in our life if we let it. Our world is dangerous and violent. Crime fills our streets making them unsafe. But Christ is our safety. He watches over, protects, and keeps those who commit their lives to Him (John 6:20).
Maximize your faith. A Christian who lacks a working faith will disappoint themselves, discourage others, and defeat God’s purposes. Prayer, effort, and a positive attitude naturally increase faith. And faith produces miracles, brings impossibilities to pass, and most of all, glorifies God (Mark 9:23).
Magnify your fervor. The people who are uninterested and unconcerned about the needs of others will find themselves to be indifferent. And if a Christian is this way, then they will surely be ineffective in their personal work for God. Romans 12:11 says, “Never be lazy, be fervent, work hard, and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” To make a difference and have peace with what we have done, we must be fervent in service for God. Prayer and ardent zeal bring results when presenting Christ to the lost (James 5:16).
Manifest your freedom. Don’t let doubts, unforgiveness, and resentments bind you from doing what God wants. These negative attributes will keep you from being the blessing you could be to the people who need you most. God will free us from the negative personalities that plague so many people today.
Mobilize your forces. Don’t sit with folded hands anymore! Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Be a worker in God’s field. We must be about the Master’s business. The field is ripe unto harvest and it’s high time to witness and win the lost so that that they may know and experience God’s love.
As Jesus grew from innocence to holiness, we too, can grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord as we commit ourselves to His work. We are not perfect like Christ, but we can grow into his likeness as we are busy for him in our trades, jobs, service, and personal witnessing. Let’s always, wherever we are, be about our Father’s business. To do so is to fulfill our own purpose for living!
• This bi-weekly column is written by Matthew Dobson. He’s a health educator for the state of Florida, U.S. Army Chaplain, and the Pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in the New York Community. He recently published his 4th Volume in the “Living With Purpose” Book series which can be found and purchased on www. Amazon.com. You can contact him at: rmdobson@liberty.edu.
