Recognize Your Purpose And Work To Fulfill It | 30 Days To Becoming A Woman Of Prayer by Stormie Omartian

Recognize Your Purpose And Work To Fulfill It

Not having a sense of purpose in life is a dangerous thing. We can end up making wrong choices, doing stupid things, becoming frustrated or unfulfilled, and falling into traps of the enemy. Granted, we can still experience any of these same things even when we do have a sense of purpose, but at least it’s not a chronic situation. It’s a temporary deviation from a general path—where we stumble briefly on the road of our life—but then, because we do have a sense of purpose, we quickly straighten up and head in the right direction again.

Having a sense of purpose doesn’t mean you know every detail of your future. You may actually know very few details about it. In fact, you may not know at all where the road that God has you on will take you. But you do know where it will not take you. For example, you may sense that you are called to use your gifts to help people, but you know you are not called to leave your spouse and children to do that. This knowledge alone will help you make certain right decisions.

Having a calling or a sense of purpose will stop you from crumbling when you face fear or failure. It will keep you moving on when you become discouraged. It will prevent you from wasting valuable time doing something that you know is not right for you. People who throw away their life with drugs, alcohol, gambling, or viewing pornography have no idea of God’s purpose for them. If they did, I believe their God- given sense of purpose would quickly override their desire for all that. Their calling would call them away from it—

or could have prevented it from happening in the first place. Even when a person is a victim of something horrendous, he or she needs to understand that the high purpose of God has not been lost; it is still there. I believe not having that sense of purpose is an underlying factor in the serious problems many people face.

I am convinced that all the trouble and heartbreak I experienced in the years before I became a believer were because I didn’t have Jesus or the Holy Spirit in me or a sense of God’s purpose for my life. The only sense I had about anything was that life is fragile, it could all be over in an instant, that every day is a struggle to survive, that I am powerless to change myself or anything about my life, and that the people who are supposed to love you don’t, unless you can be and do what they want you to be and do.

But after I became a believer, I finally had a sense of hope and purpose. The most valuable thing in my life was the loving, accepting, rejuvenating, strengthening, freeing, healing, restoring presence of God. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. It was unmistakable. Every time I walked into church I sensed that strong presence, and it would bring me to tears. Not tears of bitterness, sadness, frustration, or self-pity as before, but tears that washed away a lifetime of all that. They were tears that healed, cleansed, restored, repaired, and softened my heart where it had been broken so many times that the scars were part of the hardness of it.

I’m not saying I was perfect after accepting God into my life. I still made mistakes. I did stupid things that I regret, and I was disappointed by other Christians that I thought should be as perfect as their God was. It was all part of growing in the Lord. I stumbled, but I felt strong conviction that I—now a daughter of the King—was meant for better things than the depth to which I had allowed myself to fall.

Before having that sense of God-given purpose, I had been suffocating in my life and couldn’t find any fresh air. I had been sinking and nearly drowning in a sea of bad decisions and desperation. Jesus not only threw me a lifeline, but He also gave me

His secure and steady hand that pulled me up out of the mire. Where the emptiness of my life had only been superseded by my paralyzing fear, I now had Someone whose unconditional love was powerful enough to take away all fear and fill me with peace and joy. Jesus restored me and convinced me I had a purpose. And I knew it was good because He is good.

Recognize That You Have A Purpose

If you are a believer, you have a purpose. Don’t ever think you don’t. We can too easily become sidetracked about this because we watch too much television and think everything we read in a newspaper or magazine is true. Get this straight in your mind: The Bible is true. Whatever is based on the Bible and written by honest believers should also be true. Everything else is suspect. Don’t base your sense of purpose on what the world thinks is valuable.

Purpose is what God has purposed for you to do. It is what you do purposefully for the Lord.

Your calling is what God calls you to do. He leads you into it. He reveals the gifts He has put in you and how He wants you to use them. Ask God to show you the gifts He has placed in you.

If you already have a strong sense of purpose and calling, be thankful because not everyone has that. Pray you never lose sight of it. Ask God to redefine the vision He has given you so that you can stay on the right path and not become sidetracked or diverted with unnecessary activity or distractions.

If you don’t have a sense of purpose, or you have a vague sense that you do have a purpose but have no idea what it is, then ask yourself, “What am I good at?” Write down your answer. Make a list. If you don’t know the answer to that question, then ask yourself, “What do I like to do?” “What do I enjoy doing?” “What kind of work could I do if I learned the skills I need?” “What kind of skills would I like to learn?”

“What do I want to do well?” If you are having trouble with the answers to these questions, ask someone you trust to help you make this list.

Don’t expect to know all the details of your purpose and calling. Sometimes just knowing you have a purpose and calling is good enough to keep you going on the right path. Whenever you become confused or doubtful about this, go back to what you do know is your calling. Let me remind you that your life has purpose simply because you are God’s child. You are called to be a disciple of Jesus and share the good news about life in Him. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). You are also called to serve God and glorify Him by being His hand extended to others.

Your greatest purpose and calling on earth is to worship God. You were created for that. Worship will be your greatest purpose throughout eternity. One of the many wonderful things that happen as a result of worshipping God is He gives you revelation for your life. Praising Him will help you to fulfill your purpose. “God has called us to peace’ (1 Corinthians 7:15). He has called us to holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7). He has called us to liberty (Galatians 5:13). And He has called us to become more like Him every day (Romans 8:29). Pursuing those things will also keep us on the path toward fulfilling our purpose.

If you have had a strong sense of purpose in the past, but at this stage in your life you feel you may have lost it, keep in mind there are many things affecting that. If you have had health problems, relational disappointments, financial struggles, or you’ve been overworked to the point of exhaustion, stressed to the breaking point, or viciously attacked by the enemy, any one of those things can shake your confidence about yourself and your life. Don’t let your circumstances dictate your sense of purpose. Your calling and purpose come from God, and He does not change His mind about that.

Submit Your Work To God

Knowing your purpose doesn’t mean every job you do is fraught with deep significance. God uses the work we do to prepare us. Some jobs will humble us, give us more compassion for others, train us for what is ahead, or be a means to an end. A job may serve to simply provide the funds to stay alive, have a place to live, help your child be in a good school, enable you to care for others, or support you as you further your education. Each job prepares you for another in some way, so don’t get down if you are in one of those preparatory, maturing, means-to-an-end kind of jobs.

If at all possible, it’s important to find work you care about because you will do a better job at something you enjoy. Do you like to help others? In what ways do you like to help them? Do you like to teach? Serve? Make things for them? Help them do what they need to do? Help them get well? Ask God to show you the answers to these questions.

Whatever you do as your work, submit it to God for His glory. Ask Him to be in charge of it and bless it. When you do that, even the parts of what you are doing that are unpleasant to you will be bearable. “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24). You will always succeed at something you love and dedicate to God.

If you feel the work you have is not what you are supposed to be doing, ask God to move you out of that and into your real purpose. If your work situation is beating you down or making you sick, depressed, or anxious, or it just feels plain wrong to you, then ask God to give you a new vision for your life. You don’t have to live adrift in your occupation—feeling aimless, inadequate, untalented, or purposeless. You can live a dynamic life of power and purpose no matter what work you are doing, if it is the will of God for your life.

Regardless of what you do, when your greatest motivation is to help others, it will be your greatest satisfaction as well (Philippians 2:4).

The Anointing Of God

The Bible says, “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). God has placed gifts in you and He has a calling on your life, and that truth never changes. Whether you seek to recognize your gifts and understand your calling is up to you. God will not try to hide your calling from you. In fact, He often makes it so obvious that we don’t even recognize it because we are looking for something different.

However, don’t become confused and think that the gifts and calling of God are the same as the anointing. God’s anointing is a special touch of God on our lives. When we are operating in our own gifts and calling, this touch of God will bring these gifts alive so they can be used powerfully for His glory and His purpose. The anointing is a special presence of the Holy Spirit that ignites your gifts and calling so that they bring life to other people and fulfill God’s plan.

It is important to know that this anointing can be lost. It can be forfeited by our disobedience or sin. An example of this was Samson. He had a gift of strength. And his calling was to use it for the glory of God. His strength was represented by his long hair, and he was instructed to never cut it. When he was foolishly fooling around with Delilah, he told her the secret of his strength. She drugged him, and when he was asleep she had someone cut his hair. He awoke to see that the Philistines had captured him. He thought he was still strong and could break free, but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him’ (Judges 16:20). The Lord withdrew from Samson because of his disobedience.

In another example, King Saul disobeyed God and lost God’s anointing to be king of his people. Saul rejected instructions from God, so God rejected him from being king (1 Samuel 15:16-23). “The Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him” (1 Samuel 16:14). God gives us gifts and a calling to fulfill our purpose in life, and He does not take them

back. However, the anointing of God is a gift so priceless that if we don’t value it and we turn our back on God’s ways, we will lose it.

The Bible says, “You have an anointing from the Holy One” (1 John 2:20). It also says, “The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you” (1 John 2:27). The anointing comes from God and lives in you. It is a work of the Holy Spirit in and through you that causes the things you do that are directed by God—in conjunction with His will and purpose for your life—to be illuminated to others. Desire the anointing of the Lord on what you do, but take care that you in no way disobey the Lord or compromise His Spirit in you. I pray “that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12).

You will never find your purpose away from the God who created you for a purpose in the first place. Don’t let your mind “be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). If life becomes overwhelming to you, it’s because you are trying to live it in your own effort—to make things happen yourself. Look to the Lord in worship and prayer, and He will get you where you need to go. He will enable you to do what He has called you to do.

Prayer Power

Lord, You knew me before I was born. Thank You that You predestined me to be saved and conformed to the image of Jesus. Thank You that You have called me and prepared me to glorify You (Romans 8:29-30). Give me a clear sense of Your purpose in my life. Help me to understand what is the hope of my calling and the exceeding greatness of Your power to enable me to fulfill that purpose.

I pray everything I do will support Your plans and purposes for my life. Show me the gifts You have put in me and how I can best develop them and use them for Your pleasure. Enable me to stay strong in Your ways so that Your purpose can be realized in my life.

I commit my work to You. I pray I will always be in Your will in whatever I do, and that I will do it well. I pray that all I do is pleasing to You and to those for whom and with whom I am working. No job is too small or too great as long as it is what You have called me to do. Establish the work of my hands for Your pleasure and Your glory (Psalm 90:17).

Help me to understand what is the hope of my calling (Ephesians 1: 17-18). Enable me to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” that You have given me to do, knowing that my “labor is not in vain in the Lord”—as long as it is from You and for You (1 Corinthians 15:58). Help me to live every day with a deep sense of Your purpose in my life.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

Word Power

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,

and fulfill all your purpose.

Psalm 20:4

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.

Ephesians 4:1

We also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power.

2 Thessalonians 1:11

My beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58