You Can Make A Difference (part 2)

This is the second instalment in a 4-part post. Enjoy!

This is all from ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren

The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. It’s not about you. You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own purpose.

“Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us into the open, into a spacious, free life.” (Rom 8:6)

“Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.” (Mat 16:25)

How, then do you discover the purpose you were created for? You have only two options. Your first option is speculation. This is what most people choose. They conjecture, they guess, they theorize. Fortunately, there is an alternative to speculation, and it is revelation. Ask God. God is not just the starting point of your life; he is the source of it. To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God’s Word, not the world’s wisdom.

The Bible says in Ephesians 1:4a,11 and Psalm 139:16 (paraphrasing):

1) You discover your identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

2) God was thinking of you long before you ever thought about him. His purpose for your life predates conception. You don’t get to choose your purpose.

3) The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity.

The Benefits of Purpose-driven Living

1) Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life. Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope. ”I know what I am planning for you…’I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future’” (Jeremiah 29:11)

2) Knowing your purpose simplifies your life. “A pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life” (Proverbs 13:7). It also leads to peace of mind: “You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you” (Isaiah 26:3).

3) Knowing your purpose focuses your life. “Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.” (Ephesians 5:17).”Let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us” (Philippians 3:15).

4) Knowing your purpose motivates your life. Purpose always produces passion. Nothing energizes like a clear purpose.

5) Knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity. You weren’t put on earth to be remembered. You were put on earth to prepare for eternity. One day you will stand before God, and he will do an audit of your life, a final exam, before you enter eternity. From the Bible we can surmise that God will ask us two crucial questions: First, “What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?” Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me” (Johan14:6). Second, “What did you do with what I gave you?” What did you do with your life – all the gifts, talents, opportunities, energy, relationships and resources God gave you? Did you spend them on yourself, or did you use them for the purposes God made for you?

What Will You Live For?

Living the rest of your life for the glory of God will require a change in your priorities, your schedule, your relationships, and everything else. This will not be easy - even Jesus struggled with this. Will you live for your own goals, comfort, and pleasure, or will you live the rest of your life for God’s glory, knowing that he has promised eternal rewards? God will give you what you need if you will just make the choice to live for him. First, believe, second, receive. Say: ”Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you”.

1) Purpose # 1: You were planned for God’s Pleasure.

2) Purpose # 2: You were planned for God’s Family

3) Purpose # 3: You were created to Become like Christ

4) Purpose # 4: You were shaped for Serving God

5) Purpose # 5: You were made for a Mission.

Everybody eventually surrenders to something or someone. If not to God, you will surrender to the opinions or expectations of others, to money, to resentment, to fear, or to your own pride, lusts, or ego. You were designed to worship God – and if you fail to worship him, you will create other things (idols) to give your life to. You are free to choose what you surrender to, but you are not free from the consequences of that choice. If you don’t surrender to Christ, you surrender to chaos. Surrender is not the best way to live; it is the only way to live. Nothing else works. All other approaches lead to frustration, disappointment, and self-destruction.

Surrendering your life is not a foolish emotional impulse but a rational, intelligent act, the most responsible and sensible thing you can do with your life. That is why Paul said, “So we make it our goal to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). Your wisest moments will be those when you say yes to God. You cannot fulfill God’s purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans.

Put Jesus Christ in the driver’s seat of your life and take your hands off the steering wheel. Don’t be afraid; nothing under his control can ever be out of control. Mastered by Christ, you can handle anything. Surrendering is not just a one-time event. Paul said, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31). There is a moment of surrender, and there is the practice of surrender, which is moment-by-moment and lifelong. You must make it a daily habit. Jesus said, “If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing to give up their lives daily to follow me” (Luke 9:23).

Becoming Best friends with God

Friendship with God is possible only because of the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus. “All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends” (2 Corinthians 5:18a). God deeply desires that we know him intimately. We learn 6 secrets of friendship with God, i.e. becoming a best friend of God:

1) Through constant conversation. Friendship with God is built by sharing all your life experience with him. Of course, as Jesus modeled, you need time alone with God, but that is a fraction of your waking hours. Everything you do can be spending time with God if he is invited to be a part of it and you stay aware of his presence. What you normally do for yourself you begin doing for God. “He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything” (Ephesians 4:6b). You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath: ‘You are with me.’ ‘I receive your grace.’ ‘I’m depending on you.’ ‘I want to know you.’ ‘I belong to you. ’’Help me trust you.’ You can also use a short phrase of Scripture: ‘For me to live is Christ.’ ‘You will never leave me.’ ‘You are my God.’ Pray it as often as possible so it is rooted deep in your heart. Just be sure that your motive is to honor god, not control him. You must force yourself to think about God at different times in your day. You must train your mind to remember God. If you are seeking an experience of his presence through all of this, you have missed the point. We don’t praise god to feel good, but to do good. Your goal is not a feeling, but a continual awareness of the reality that God is always present. That is the lifestyle of worship.

2) Through continual meditation, i.e. thinking about his Word throughout the day. This is called meditation, and the Bible repeatedly urges us to meditate on who God is, what he has done, and what he has said. (Psalms 23:4; 143:5; 145:5; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2). You can’t love God unless you know him, and you can’t know him without knowing his Word. Meditation is simply focused thinking. Friends share secrets, and God will share his secrets with you if you develop the habit of thinking about his Word throughout the day. The more time you spend reviewing what God has said, the more you will understand the ‘secrets’ of his life most people miss. Prayer lets you speak to God; meditation lets God speak to you.

3) I must choose to be honest with God. You are as close to God as you choose to be. If you want a deeper, more intimate connection with God, you must learn to honestly share your feelings with him, trust him when he asks you to do something, learn to care what he cares about, and desire his friendship more than anything else. God doesn’t expect you to be perfect, but he does insist on complete honesty. In the Bible, the friends of God (Abraham, David, Jeremiah, Job). were honest about their feelings, often complaining, second-guessing, accusing, and arguing with their Creator. God, however, didn’t seem to be bothered by this frankness; in fact, he encouraged it. Share your true feelings with God, not what you think you ought to feel or say. God always acts in your best interest, even when it is painful and you don’t understand it. But releasing your resentment and revealing your true feeling is the first step to healing. “I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles. For I am overwhelmed” (Psalm 142:2-3a) Expressing doubt is sometimes the first step toward the next level of intimacy with God.

4) I must choose to obey God in faith. Every time you trust God’s wisdom and do whatever he says, even when you don’t understand it, you deepen your friendship with God. Jesus made it clear that obedience is a condition of intimacy with God. He said, “You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14). We are friends with God, but we are not his equals. He is our loving leader, and we follow him. We obey God, not out of duty or fear or compulsion, but because we love him and trust that he knows what is best for us. We want to follow Christ out of gratitude for all he has done for us, and the closer we follow him, the deeper our friendship becomes. Note that Jesus expects us to do only what he did with the Father. Jesus did whatever the Father asked him to do – out of love. True friendship isn’t passive; it acts. Love motivates us to obey immediately. Even through such simple acts as telling the truth, being kind, and encouraging others, we bring a smile to God’s face. God treasures simple acts of obedience more than our prayers, praise or offerings.

5) I must choose to value what God values. This is what friends do. The more you become God’s friend, the more you will care about the things he cares about. What does God care about most? The redemption of his people. Friends of God tell their friends about God.

6) I must desire friendship with God more than anything else. Intimate friendship with God is a choice, not an accident. You must intentionally seek it. If you’ve just been going through the motions spiritually, don’t be surprised when God allows pain in your life. Pain is the fuel of passion – it energizes us with an intensity to change that we don’t normally possess. C.S Lewis said, ‘Pain is God’s megaphone.’ It is God’s way of arousing us from spiritual lethargy. Your problems are not punishment; they are wake-up calls from a loving God. But there is an easier way to reignite your passion for God: Start asking God to give it to you, and keep on asking until you have it. Pray this throughout your day: “Dear Jesus, more than anything else, I want to get to know you intimately.” God told the captives in Babylon, “When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed” (Jeremiah 29:13).

The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving him when he seems distant.

What Matters Most

“Love means living the way God commanded us to live. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is this: Live a life of love.” (2 John 1:6 NCV).

Because God is love, the most important lesson he wants us to learn on earth is how to love. It is in loving that we are most like him, so love is the foundation of every command he has given us: “The whole Law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love others as you love yourself.’” (Galatians 5:4).

Transformed by Trouble

God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character. God uses problems to draw you closer to himself. Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days – when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned. It is during suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest-to-God prayers. We learn things in suffering that we can’t learn any other way. Problems force us to look to God and depend on him instead of ourselves.

You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.

Every problem is a character-building opportunity. ‘We know that these troubles produce patience. And patience produces character.’ (Romans 5:3-4) ‘These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure.’ (1 Peter 1:7a) ‘Under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.’ (James 1:3) The Bible says Jesus ‘learned obedience through suffering’ and ‘was made perfect through suffering.’ (Hebrews 5:8-9)

· Remember that God’s plan is good. God knows what is best for you and has your best interests at heart. ‘The plans I have for you [are] plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ (Jeremiah 29:11) It is vital that you stay focused on God’s plan, not your pain or problem.

· Rejoice and give thanks. ‘give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18) God doesn’t expect you to be thankful for evil, for sin, for suffering, or for their painful consequences in the world. Instead, God wants you to thank him that he will use your problems to fulfill his purposes. You can rejoice in God’s love, care, wisdom, power and faithfulness. ‘Be full of joy at that time, because you have a great reward waiting for you in heaven.’ (Luke 6:23)

· Refuse to give up. Be patient and persistent. ‘Let the process go on until your endurance is fully developed, and you will find that you have become men of mature character…with no weak spots.’ (James 1:3-4) Character building is a slow process. Ask ‘What do you want me to learn?’ Then trust God and keep on doing what’s right.

Growing through Temptation

· ‘Happy is the man who doesn’t give in and do wrong when he is tempted, for afterwards he will get as his reward the crown of life that God has promised those who love him.’ (James 1:12)

· Every temptation is an opportunity to do good. While temptation is Satan’s primary weapon to destroy you, God wants to use it to develop you. Every time you choose to do good instead of sin, you are growing in the character of Christ.

· One of the most concise descriptions of Christ’s character is the fruit of the Spirit: ‘When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.’ (Galatians 5:22-23) God develops the fruit of the Spirit in your life by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you’re tempted to express the exact opposite quality! Character development always involves a choice, and temptation provides that opportunity.

· We learn real peace by choosing to trust God in circumstances in which we are tempted to worry or be afraid. Likewise, patience is developed in circumstances in which we’re forced to wait and are tempted to be angry or have a short fuse.

· Integrity is built by defeating the temptation to be dishonest; humility grows when we refuse refuse to be prideful; and endurance develops every time you reject the temptation to give up. Every time you defeat a temptation, you become more like Jesus!

· If you didn’t have the internal desire, temptation could not attract you. Temptation always starts in your mind, not in circumstances. ‘All these vile things come from within.’(Mark 7:21-23) James tells us that there is a ‘whole army of evil desires within you.’ (James 4:1)

It Takes Time

· The development of Christlike character cannot be rushed. Spiritual growth, like physical growth, takes time. While we worry about how fast we grow, God is concerned about how strong we grow. God views our lives from and for eternity, so he is never in a hurry. ‘he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.’ (Philippians 1:6) God is more interested in strength and stability than swiftness.

Accepting Your Assignment.

‘It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.’ (Ephesians 2:10)

‘I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do.’ (John 17:4)

God designed you to make a difference with your life. You are created to add to life on earth, not just take from it.

· You were created to serve God. Whenever you serve others in any way, you are actually serving God and fulfilling one of your purposes. (Colossians 3:23-24; Matthew 25:34-45; Ephesians 6:7) ‘Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work.’ (Jeremiah 1:5)

· You were saved to serve God. ‘It is he who saved us and chose us for his holy work, not because we deserved it but because that was his plan.’ (2 Timothy 1:9) ‘Because of God’s great mercy…Offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service.’ (Romans 12:1) ‘Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life.’ (1 John 3:14) A saved heart is one that wants to serve. If you are a Christian, you are a minister, and when you’re serving, you’re ministering. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are saved to serve, not to sit around and wait for heaven.

· You were called to serve God. The Bible says every Christian is called to service. (Ephesians 4:4-14; Romans 1:6-7; 8:28-30; 1 Corinthians 1:2, 9, 26; 7:17; Philippians 3:14; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:3) A ‘non-serving Christian’ is a contradiction in terms. Any time you use your God-given abilities to help others, you are fulfilling your calling.

· You are commanded to serve God. We must act on what we know and practice what we claim to believe. Impression without expression causes depression. Study without service leads to spiritual stagnation.

One day God will compare how much time and energy we spent on ourselves compared with what we invested in serving others. ‘He will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves.’ (Romans 2:8) ‘Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.’ (Mark 8:35; Matthew 10:39; 16:25; Luke 9:24; 17:33) If you aren’t serving, you’re just existing, because life is meant for ministry. It is through ministry that we discover the meaning of our lives. ‘Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body.’ (Romans 12:5)

God wants us to make a difference in his world. He wants to work through you. What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of it. Not how long you lived, but how you lived. Service is not optional.

Before God created you, he decided what role he wanted you to play on earth. He planned exactly how he wanted you to serve him, and then he shaped you for those tasks. You are a custom-designed one-of-a-kind, original masterpiece. God deliberately shaped and formed you to serve him in a way that makes your ministry unique. ‘Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.’ (Psalm 139:16) This means that nothing that happens in your life is insignificant. God uses all of it to mould you for your ministry to others and shape you for your service to him. God never wastes anything.

How Real Servants Act

‘Whoever wants to be great must become a servant.’ (Mark 10:43).

‘You can tell what they are by what they do.’ (Matthew 7:16)

We serve God by serving others. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you. To be like Jesus is to be a servant. That’s what he called himself. While knowing your shape is important for serving God, having the heart of a servant is even more important. Remember God shaped you for service, not for self-centeredness.

God often tests our hearts by asking us to serve in ways we’re not shaped. While you may not be gifted for a particular task, you may be called to do it if no one gifted at it is around. Your primary ministry should be in the area of your shape, but your secondary service is wherever you’re needed at the moment. Your shape reveals your ministry, but your servant’s heart will reveal your maturity. All it requires is character.

Real servants:

1. Make themselves available to serve. A servant must always be standing by for duty. If you only serve when it’s convenient for you, you’re not a real servant. Being a servant means giving up the right to control your schedule and allowing God to interrupt it whenever he needs to.

2. Pay attention to needs. Servants are always on the lookout for ways to help others. ‘Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now.’ (Proverbs 3:28)

3. Do their best with what they have. Servants don’t make excuses, procrastinate, or wait for better circumstances. ‘If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.’ (Ecclesiastes 11:4) God expects you to do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are. Less-than-perfect service is always better than the best intention.

4. Do every task with equal dedication. Whatever they do, servants ‘do it with all their hearts.’ (Colossians 3:23) The size of the task is irrelevant. God will never exempt you from the mundane. It’s a vital part of your character curriculum. ‘If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody.’ (Galatians 6:3) No task is beneath you when you have a servant’s heart. The little things in life determine the big things.

5. Are faithful to their ministry. Servants finish their tasks, fulfill their responsibilities, keep their promises, and complete their commitments. They don’t leave a job half undone, and they don’t quit when they get discouraged. They are trustworthy and dependable.

6. Maintain a low profile. Servants don’t promote or call attention to themselves. ‘put on the apron of humility, to serve one another.’ (1 Peter 5:5) ‘When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 6:1) Self-promotion and servanthood don’t mix.

Abandon your agenda and accept God’s agenda for your life. Stop praying selfish prayers like ‘God bless what I want to do.’ Instead you pray, ‘God help me to do what you’re blessing.’

An example of what your life purpose should be:

‘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.’