When Gods Purpose Becomes Ours

When Gods Purpose Becomes Ours

Est 4:10-14

10 Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai;

11 All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.

12 And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.

13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.

14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Purpose - the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used

. Without knowing your purpose, life will seem tiresome. “The sun still rises and it still goes down . . . the wind blows . . . round and round and back again. Every river flows into the sea . . .[then] the water returns to where the rivers began, and starts all over again. Everything leads to weariness . . .” (Ecc. 1:5-8, TEV).

2. Without knowing your purpose, life will seem unfulfilling. “No matter how much we see, we’re never satisfied; no matter how much we hear, we are not content. History merely repeats itself. Nothing is truly new . . .” (Ecc. 1:8b-9a, LB).

3. Without knowing your purpose, life will seem uncontrollable. “You can’t straighten out what is crooked; you can’t count things that aren’t there” (Ecc. 1:15, TEV).

Knowing the purpose of your life will give your life focus. “. . . I am focusing all my energies on this one thing . . .” (v. 13).

2. Knowing the purpose of your life will simplify your life. “. . . forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” (v. 13). “You Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm” (Isa. 26:3, TEV).

3. Knowing the purpose of your life will increase motivation in your life. “. . . I strain to reach the end of the race . . .” (v. 14). “For I know the plans I have for you’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope’ (Jer. 29:11, LB).

A man started a hobby of writing to famous philosophers and scientists and authors and asking them, “What is the purpose of life?” The responses he got back were depressing at best. Isaac Asimov wrote back, “As far as I can see there is no purpose to life.” Karl Jung, the Austrian psychiatrist, wrote, “I don’t know what the meaning or the purpose of life is but it looks like as if there were something meant by it.” Arthur Clark, who wrote 2001, wrote, “I’m afraid I have no concrete ideas of the purpose of life.” Albert Ellis, the psychiatrist who invented RET therapy said, “As far as I can tell, life has no special or intrinsic meaning or purpose.” Thomas Nagle, “I’m afraid the meaning of life still eludes me.” With a sense of resignation, author Joseph Heller wrote, “I have no answers to the meaning of life and I no longer want to search for any.” Most people do not live a life of purpose.

Welch poet David Whyte wrote: “I don’t want to have written on my tombstone, when finally people struggle through the weeds, pull back the moss, and read the inscription there: ‘He made his car payments.’” You were designed for more than that. God has a purpose for your life. And until you discover his purpose – and follow through – there will hole in your soul.

1 Peter 4:10

10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

ISAIAH 49:5a, says it plainly:

“And now the Lord says – He who formed me in the womb to be His servant.”

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

When Cortez landed at Vera Cruz in 1519 to begin his conquest of Mexico with small force of 700 men, he purposely set fire to his fleet of 11 ships. His men on the shore watched their only means of retreat sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. With no means of retreat, there was only one direction to move, forward into the Mexican interior to meet whatever might come their way.