Worth: Discovering Our Purpose
Worth – Discovering Your Purpose Worth is made up of our value, identity, and purpose (V.I.P.). Understanding each of these elements helps us know we are VIP’s in God’s kingdom. Each one of us has intrinsic value because we were created by our Creator. We each have a unique identity shaped and informed by our history, story, strengths, and passions. And, we were created on purpose for a purpose – to walk out the plan God set in place and to do the works He planned in advance for us to do. Discovering your purpose is part three of our series on worth. Your purpose is a path. It’s a process of discovery, not a destination. There are two distinctives to pay attention to in discovering your purpose. They are your design and your path. The first is our design. To understand our purpose and unlock our power, we must value our design. This starts with knowing and believing we are uniquely created by the Designer for a specific purpose. When we are anchored in this knowledge, we can embrace our unique design. Some of us believe we have to fit in, perform, or look and behave in certain ways to accomplish our purpose. Instead of trying to fit into these boxes, we need to look into God’s word to discover our design. Our design isn’t found in fashion magazines or other worldly measure like career achievements or accumulating material things. This isn’t God’s design. God’s design for us is not the same as that of culture or society. “Comparison is the thief of joy” and when we look to worldly standards to measure our design, we can easily lose sight of our godly purpose. We need to be intentional and look to God instead to discover our gifting and purpose. Luke 13:20 says, “He asked, “To what can I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.” Yeast is tiny and unseen yet it acts throughout the entire batch of dough causing it to rise. Start asking God to reveal the “leaven” He has placed in you. Look for those areas that are evidence of His Spirit acting inside of you for His kingdom. God created you with unique gifts to be used for unique purposes. Take some time to explore how He designed you. Former single mom, Kimberley, shares something her daughter said when she was 8 years old. “Hey Mom, the word “us” is part of “Jesus” so that means we belong together. Jesus and us.” Yes! So simple and yet so profound. Jesus and us. We were made for connection with Him. We were created to know and follow Him. Both our design and our path our part of our purpose. And His purpose for our lives is so much better and higher than our own. When we open ourselves up to God and His purposes for us, it can look a lot different than we expect but it is so much better. Robert Beeson, founder of Solo Parent Society, says his solo season revealed more of God’s plan for him than ever before. It is at rock bottom that we sometimes find our deepest connection to God and understand ourselves more than could have in any other circumstances. Being intentional about our solo season and asking God to show us who He created us to be can be pivotal. We can come out on the other side transformed, ready to embrace our design and the path we are on, however unexpected. And our path is the second part of discovering our purpose. Often when we think of purpose, we think of it as a destination or something we determine. And that just isn’t the case. Purpose is not an objective, it’s an outcome. Purpose is found in our design and in the path that God has us on, even when that path includes hardships, trials, and brokenness. Everything happens on purpose for a purpose. Sometimes we get in a rush. We get impatient and we want to see the ending, but God gives us “just enough light for the step we’re on”. Our purpose is found in trusting God in the unknowns and in the difficult places....