Living for God's purpose

     I'm working on some thoughts for an upcoming message that will conclude a study in the life of David (King of Israel).  There is a lot to learn from his life, both good and bad (mostly good).  He was, by the description of God Himself, a "man after God's own heart."  I've entitled the series of messages on his life "In Sync with God."  We've been studying about what it's like to live the kind of life that would evoke that description by God.
     As I draw the series to a conclusion, and focus my attention on 1 Chronicles 29, I'm reminded of something that was pointed out to me about 12 years ago by a counseling professor during grad school.  She pointed to Acts 13:36 as a verse by which she guided her life.  "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with fathers and saw corruption..."
     I suppose your reaction may be the same as mine was: "What?"  Why would someone choose such a depressing verse as their life verse?  As I thought about it more, and now that I've really devoted some time to studying David's life, it opens up a fresh simplicity about life to me. 

     I'm here to serve God's purpose.  When I am done with that, he'll take me home to Heaven.

     I realize that the specifics of that are being worked out all along the path of my life and that it's not always easy to discern each step.  I'm in a season right now in which I am uncertain of what God specifically wants from me next.  But I'm encouraged to know that whatever the specifics are; his general purpose for me (to walk with him and encourage as many others as possible to join me in worshiping him) remains the same.  And as long as I am still alive, there's more to do.  I'm still here, so he's not done fulfilling his purpose through me yet.
     For today; that's enough.  Maybe you need to step back a little and remember that all the scrambling you are doing to "figure things out" is really secondary to staying focused on the main purpose of life.  Get back to that.  Everything else flows from it, not around it.
     I think I want that verse on my tombstone.  More importantly, until that becomes necessary, I want to live it.  How about you?
    

Comments

  1. Dona Haggerty :)August 2, 2012 at 7:39 PM

    Thanks for the word, Pastor Dave! I, too, am at a crossroad in my life. While I am waiting on God for the specifics, I am reading His Word, talking to Him...listening for Him. All the while loving Him, serving Him where I am and doing each day what He places before me.
    "Be still and know that I am God."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joann PosthumusAugust 3, 2012 at 12:17 AM

    The first BSF principle that I ever heard in '94was: we are immortal until we have finished the job that God has given us to do.

    ReplyDelete

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