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 schedules and activities (work, practices, meets, tournaments, tutors, recitals, award ceremonies and more). We moms live in a maze of taxi driving (pick-ups and drop-offs), carpools, careers, pickle-ball, parties, sleep-overs, 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 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 evil of these days…not being vague but grasping firmly what we know to be the will of God. Eph. 5: 15-17
True success in life is measuring what we are by what we could be (always seeking His purpose and meaning in life) and what we have done by what we could have done (by His grace). “Faithful is He who called you who will also do it (is we get out of the way, relinquish our self will and yield to His!). It is achieving the full potential God planned for us. We are destined with His purpose on our life…”It’s not about me!” Col. 1: 28,2
Are we focused on what God is focused on or are we hastily and thoughtlessly doing our own thing…running through life? If we have not realized our life purpose and set eternal goals, our present priorities to reach that goal are short-sighted and superfluous! Our focus is blurred by the demands of the immediate on the altar of the permanent.
When I was a young Christian, I was challenged by Betty Stams Declaration of Purpose. She was a missionary to China and was martyred by the Communists in 1949.
“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes and accept Your will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to You, to be yours forever. Fill me and seal me with Your Holy Spirit. Use me as You will, send me where You will, work out Your whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever.”
While at Bible School, I stapled that statement 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…) is gain…” This 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 mentoring 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.
