What Is My Purposeনমুনা

A Stewardship Perspective

1 Corinthians 4:7 - For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

A stewardship perspective of life begins right in the first chapter of the Bible, in Gen 1:28, where mankind was given dominion over creation, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This verse needs to be read along with Genesis 2:15 which reads, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” Adam and Eve were told to tend the garden on behalf of God. And the authority that He gave them was so that they would be able to fulfill this directive.

Ps 24:1 says that everything that is there in creation belongs to God, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.”

Thus, we are not owners of anything, but stewards. All the wealth we have, the skills we possess, everything belongs to God, and as the parable of the talents in Matt 25 brings out, we are to use them for God – to care for the needs of humanity. Therefore, all that we do in life needs to be linked with serving people and their needs. Through this, we serve God and fulfil His purposes for us.

This worldview is essential to understanding why we are here.

Ps 139:13-16 brings out the fact that we have been uniquely crafted by God for a specific purpose which He has ordained for us.

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

The same idea is reiterated in Eph 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. Hence God has positioned us where we are according to His divine plan. We do not need to fight the situation that we find ourselves in but need to try and understand why God would want us there and what He would have us do. So, the first step in understanding our purpose is to accept our present context as God-arranged, and then to see what He would have us do in that context.

Since God has pre-ordained the good work we are to do, does that mean that we have to know the details of this plan to fulfil it? No, we do not need to know the plan or what God expects. We walk by faith that God is in control. As we live by the principles taught to us by the Bible, in the context God has provided for us, the purposes of God are fulfilled in our lives.

Many people think that responding to God’s call means changing their present situation. It is not. It is changing our behaviour in the situation we are in. Before we were living with worldly values but now we live with the values of Jesus. Earlier we were living for worldly purposes, but now we live for Jesus. That is the primary change that Jesus wants in our lives.

Are you using your resources for God or yourself?