Pursuing God’s purpose for your life.
God created you to live in this particular time and place so you would have all the right traits, experiences, and relationships to accomplish the purpose and plans he has for you. Despite how you may feel about where you are in life right now, God has great plans for you. Plans for which he uniquely designed you.
Eternal impact happens by doing what God has planned for you
It is important to understand that while God loves you more than you can ever imagine, you are meant to fulfill part of his master plan. God does not exist to fulfill our plans; we exist to fulfill his.
The prophet Isaiah explained it like this, “Yet, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the product of your labor” (Isaiah 64:8)
You were created to do the good things that God planned for you before you were even born. Your life has purpose. Your life matters. You are significant.
Perhaps you are thinking, “Yeah, God may have had a plan for me but I have royally messed that up by the mistakes I’ve made.” Yes, you may have made mistakes, but that doesn’t disqualify you from still fulfilling God’s purposes. Through his foreknowledge and sovereignty, his plan for you incorporates your mistakes. Think about Paul’s life before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He was transformed from a persecutor of Christians into the greatest preacher of his time.
God’s plan for our lives is usually revealed progressively, one situation at a time. Obviously, most of us would like to see the entire road map now, but that is not how God operates. He wants us to walk by faith, taking one step at a time in the direction he is guiding us. Doing that without fear requires a close relationship with him that involves communication and trust.
Our ultimate significance is determined by how well we fulfill the plans our creator has for us.
Eternal impact happens by doing things God’s way
God does not just want us do what he has assigned to us. He also wants us to do things his way. That means following his guidelines, depending on his resources and involving his family members.
Many believers do not realize that the Christian life is a supernatural life. Jesus Christ lives in us, and wants to live his life through us. Tragically, most Christians try to live the Christian life through their own self-effort. We couldn’t save ourselves, or earn our way to heaven, through our own self-effort. It is equally important to realize that we can’t live the Christian life in our own self-effort either. In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul explains,
“Each builder’s work will be plainly seen, for the Day will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what kind of work each has done.” —1 Corinthians 3:13
In addition to being dependent on the Holy Spirit’s power and interdependent on others within God’s family whom he has gifted, God wants us to do his work with the right motives. Self-centeredness, selfish ambition, greed and many other worldly motivators have no place in accomplishing God’s agenda.
Eternal impact happens through the use of your time, talent and treasure
God has entrusted each one of us with varying amounts of time, talent, and treasure. Even though these are in our possession, we are to use what he has given to us as good stewards for his Kingdom. Unfortunately these precious resources are usually used thoughtlessly and wasted on perishable pursuits.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” — Matthew 6:21
God wants to show you how you can better use the days and years of life he has given you for eternal purposes.
God wants to guide you into situations where your particular abilities and spiritual gifts will have an impact for his Kingdom.
And God wants to direct you in the use of your money and wealth so it is invested in ways to produce dividends in heaven.
Whenever we invest our time, talent, and treasure in the heavenly kingdom of God, they become imperishable and generate eternal rewards. And the best reward is hearing God say, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant.”