Have you found yourself endlessly frustrated with trying to find your purpose in life? Do you pray constantly for God to reveal what you were created for? STOP! God’s Word reveals completely what our Purpose is in Him! You were created and purposed to have a personal relationship with Him. Through having a personal relationship with God, your desire becomes to bring glory to His name. You begin to delight in Him, trust in Him, and operate your life daily in faith and love. By just living for Christ, your purpose takes on a life of its own – your gifts come together to support the dreams and aspirations God places in your heart.
“Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart” Psalms 37:4
The purpose for which you were created is to have a close, divine relationship with God… God wants you to be happy, successful, and fulfilled in this life. As such, once your faith in Him is established, the desires of your heart ARE your purpose in life!! Many of us have been taken through a period of brokenness because we have not realized how impersonal – or even nonexistent – our relationship with God is. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t love us; it doesn’t mean that He has forsaken us… and it doesn’t mean that “karma” has come back to “get” us or that we are paying for past mistakes. Job went through a period of brokenness – and his brokenness wasn’t even due to any fault of his own… it was simply for God to bring glory to His name by proving Job’s faith and loyalty to Him was not selfishly dependent on how God had blessed him. In Job proving this to be true – showing the devil that he would love and trust God regardless of his condition – God decided to replace everything Job had been stripped of, and then some!
Do not grow weary believing that you are being punished through your trials! In the first chapter of the Book of James, you will read the following:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
In a nutshell, what James is saying is that our troubles are for our benefit – for us to grow stronger in our faith, closer in our relationship with God, wiser in our decisions, and more virtuous and moral in our characters. Trials teach us to be humble and to overcome obstacles we face, knowing that with God all things are possible. The feelings we experience during our period of brokenness teach us to resist tempatation and to seek the truth in our spirits and ACT on the Word of God rather than accepting the truth of religions of the world and sitting on the knowledge we gain – being DOers of God’s plan and not just HEARers of it.
As difficult as it may be, EMBRACE what you are going through today – because it will shape who you are tomorrow, equip you with what you need INSIDE to walk in Christ’s example, and prepare you for where God is taking you in His divine – and perfect – plan for your life. So, stop searching out your purpose in life … and start seeking out the truth in GOD, which will lead to things greater than you could even think to ask for. (Ephesians 3:20)
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