Inspired by “the Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren:
Everyone’s life is driven by something. What category do you fall under?
Guilt:
Your life is cat-and-dog chase of running from regrets and hiding from shame. Your past controls your future and you sabotage your own success. We are products of our past, yes, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it. God’s purpose is not limited by our pasts. He turned a murderer named Moses into a leader. God specializes in fresh starts!
Resentment and Anger:
You hold on to hurts and never get over them. Instead of releasing your pain through forgiveness, you rehearse it over and over in your mind. Resentment always hurts you more than your offender because while it may have become an afterthought you them, you are stewing in it. Your past is your past! Nothing will change it. For your own sake, learn from it, and then let it go. “To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.”
Fear:
You’re afraid to venture out, playing it safe and avoiding risks. But fear is a self-imposed prison sprung from traumatic experiences, unrealistic expectations, or even a genetic predisposition. But you must move against it with faith and love. “Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life-fear of death, fear of judgement-is one not yet fully formed in love”
Materialism:
Your desire to acquire is the whole goal in your life. Having more is synonymous with happiness, importance, security, etc. But possessions only provide temporary happiness and because nothing changed, we will bore of them. Net worth and self-worth are also not the same thing. And wealth can be lost instantly, so there is no security there.
Approval:
Expectations of parents, spouses, children, or teachers control your life. Unfortunately, those who follow the crown usually get lost in it. Being controlled by the opinions of others will impede your view of God’s purpose. “No one can serve two masters.”
Purpose:
You live a life guided by God’s purpose for you. Neither success, wealth, fame, or pleasure can entice you because you are operating at your full potential and nothing matters more than that.
What purpose-driven living feels like:
meaning: Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no hope. Hope is essential to life. You need hope to cope. Hope comes from having a purpose.
simplification: purpose defines what you do and what you don’t do. You have a standard with which to evaluate what activities are essential and which aren’t. You have just enough time to do God’s will and so purpose-driven living leads to a simpler lifestyle and saner schedule…and peace of mind.
focus: purpose concentrates your energy and effort on what’s important. You won’t inexplicably change directions to settle confusion or emptiness. Your focused life is potent and impactful. You don’t do it all, you do less, pruning away even good activities to maximize only that which matters most. You don’t confuse activity with productivity.
motivation: purpose produces passion. nothing energizes like a clear purpose. It’s usually meaningless work, not overwork, that saps our energy, and robs our joy.
preparation for eternity: You don’t live for a legacy here on earth, but for what God will say about you. You live to prepare for eternity. You live to pass these two questions: Did you accept Jesus? What did you do with what I gave you: talents, relationships, opportunities, gifts, resources? Did you spend them on yourself or use them for God’s purpose for you?
