A New Year! Another Opportunity!
When you get to the end of this year, what do you want to look back on and say you accomplished…Personally? Professionally? Spiritually? Relationally?
Would you like to make this year your most successful ever?
How fruitful would you say you were this past year? Did you attain the goals you set? How did you do with keeping Godly priorities?
So often we think to be successful we need a sense that we are getting more out of life…more me time, vacation time, more quality time with our children, more opportunities to develop a more mature relationship with our husbands, more exercise, less weight… “it’s all about me”! We are blinded by kids’ schedules (practices, meets, tournaments, tutors, recitals, award ceremonies and more). We live in a maze of taxi driving (pick-ups and drop-offs), carpools, careers, vacations, parties, sleepovers, play dates, fears and circumstances that keep us from seeing the clarity of our designed purpose. We are forever seeking balance…
This is the opposite of what God envisions for us. We are to live life, then, with a due sense of responsibility… not as (women) who do not know the meaning and purpose of life, but those who do…making the best use of our time, despite all the evils of these days…not being vague, but grasping firmly what we know to be the will of the Lord. Ephesians 5:15-17
Fulfillment in life is not deciding what we want to do or become, but discovering and completing the purpose for which God made us! (Gothard)
True Success in life is measuring what we are by what we could be (always seeking His purpose and meaning of life) and what we have done by what we could have done (by His grace). “Faithful is He who calls us who (HE) will also do it (if we get out of the way, relinquish our will and yield to His!). It is achieving the full potential God planned for us. (ATIA) We are destined with His purpose on our life. (Col. 1:28, 29)… “it’s not about me”!
Are we focused on what God is focused on or are we hastily and thoughtlessly doing our own thing? If we have not realized our life purpose and set eternal goals for this coming year, our present priorities to reach that goal are superfluous! Our focus is blurred by the demands of the immediate on the altar of the permanent.
The key to a full and rich life is determined by our commitment to pleasing God. The alternative is failure…and I hate failure!
When I was a young Christian I was challenged by Betty Scott Stams’ declaration of purpose. She was a missionary to China and was martyred by Communists in 1949.
“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Yours forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever.”
While at the University, I stapled that statement of purpose inside the flap of my Bible and it is still there today…a reminder of my commitment to my God, who gave His ALL for me, to “die daily”. “If anyone would come after me (Christ), he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
Taken from Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die (to my will, rights, ambitions, entitlements, etc.) is gain. It has carried me through life and has been my comfort while serving in the jungles of Panama until this day…
Where is your heart?
What is your declaration of purpose?
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
