Saturday, January 27, 2007

Discovering Life’s Purpose

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

When we follow God’s direction, we will experience spiritual peace, joy, and contentment. To discover our purpose, the first step is receiving Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. In other words, we must be saved.

Our part in salvation is to acknowledge we are sinners, admitting to God that we’ve lived in rebellion against Him. (Romans 3:23) We profess our belief that Jesus’ death on the cross fully paid our sin-debt, and we ask God’s forgiveness. We recognize Jesus as personal Savior and Lord, and we commit our life to Him. (1 John 1:9; Romans 10:9; Galatians 2:20)

Since He is now in charge, our orders and direction will come from Him. Once we become part of God’s family, we have His Spirit to help us discover and carry out our Father’s plan.

God’s purpose for His children always includes sanctification, stewardship, and service.

Sanctification” describes progressive growth in holiness. The Holy Spirit, with our cooperation, transforms our character to be Christlike.

"Stewardship" means managing and prioritizing the time, talents, and treasures He has given us. Service for the kingdom is to mark our lives, just as it did Jesus’ life. (Matthew 20:28) We serve our Father by obediently ministering to others.

As we seek the Lord’s specific plan for our lives, we can know with confidence that it will include a change in character, an investment of our resources for His kingdom, and ministry to others.

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