Find God's Purpose

People want to succeed in life. So, they find a purpose in a dream job and/or a dream marriage. But is that the highest purpose we can aspire to? No, there’s something beyond that: God’s purpose for our lives.

The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2:12-13, “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his purpose.” And God certainly worked through Paul to fulfill His purpose of establishing centers of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

It could be that a person’s job is God’s purpose for them. So, finding God’s purpose doesn’t mean leaving your job and family and joining a monastery or convent. It could mean just the opposite. When I was in grade school, I thought my purpose was to become a priest. But even though I lost interest in that, I continued to desire a spiritual life and joined various spiritual communities. I thought I had found my purpose and was content with my monkish existence. But then I faced a crisis that caused me to question my life. I fell in love. In the midst of this turmoil, I had a lucid dream full of symbols and riddles. Toward the end of the dream, I was led up a winding stone stairway to the top of a mountain, actually, to the edge of the cliff. I had to jump off, but then I woke up. The overarching meaning of the dream was that God’s purpose for my life included being a husband and father, but I needed to take several steps to get to the point of marriage, and I had to figure out what those steps were. Over the next several months, I took those steps, and within a year, I was married and finally happy doing God’s purpose.

Probably the most important question people can ask themselves is “What’s God’s purpose for me?” Because without willing and acting according to God’s purpose, they won’t be truly happy. Finding God’s purpose for us is the key to living a fulfilling life. God’s plan for us is the most important goal we can aspire to. It’s more valuable than the love of family and friends, knowledge, or wealth. Once we know God’s purpose and begin to fulfill it, we feel that our lives are complete. Then nothing can faze us. We have the courage to face any challenge, endure any loss or setback, and keep striving no matter what.

God created us with all our talents, abilities, and strengths with great purpose and intentionality to be used not only to benefit ourselves but others as well. People intuitively know that they’ve been gifted with one or more unique talents or abilities that they were meant to use to fulfill God’s purpose in their lives. Not using them is like putting money under a mattress instead of investing it. In the "Parable of the Talents," in Matthew 25:26–30, the master reprimanded the third servant for hiding his talent in the ground.

So, use your talents to do good. Teach others your skills and knowledge and thereby multiply them. Share your wisdom. Don’t hide your light under a basket. But remember, no matter how great your talent, it’s a gift from God for his purpose. But sometimes, God’s purpose requires you to do something you don’t have a talent for. Moses had no gift for speaking. In fact, he stuttered. Yet God told him to tell Pharoah to let his people go.

While we may not have a grand calling like Paul or Moses, we all have a calling, purpose, or mission, whether great or small. And it probably will be difficult, like climbing a mountain. Jesus gave the parable of the talents right before he told his disciples that he would be betrayed and crucified. That was God’s purpose for him. Moses was happily married and finding purpose as a shepherd. But God had a more difficult, more important purpose for him.

So, how do we find God’s purpose for our lives? Just as Moses climbed to the peak of Mt. Horeb, so must we climb to the summit of our being through prayer and meditation to receive our mission from the I AM THAT I AM. I climbed that mountain in my dream and in my life after the dream. These are called peak experiences at the tip of Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs. Not the old pyramid with self-actualization at the peak, but the new pyramid with self-transcendence at the peak where we go beyond our purpose to God’s purpose. Then we can descend back into the world and carry out that mission as Moses did. But we can’t stay on that lower plane of consciousness for long or we’ll burn out. We need to go back up the mountain every now and then as Jesus did and renew ourselves. So, it’s not enough to know God’s purpose for us. We must also have a prayer life that’s connected to the Holy Spirit to recharge us, teach us, and guide us. We may be reluctant to begin our mission or discouraged from continuing it because of opposition to it just as Moses was. But remember, God has deposited this purpose in our hearts, so He will equip us, just like He equipped Moses. God assured Moses and so many before and after him, that He would be with them always, provided they remained faithful. The same holds true today. We serve a God who is true to His word. He will never "leave us or forsake us."

So, climb your mountain, find God’s purpose for your life, let go of your doubts and fears and selfish desires, then just do it with prayerfulness, and trust that God is with you every step of the way.