Fulfilling Your Purposeنموونە

Even as the Father has sent Me I send you

After His resurrection, Jesus came to the apostles and He breathed on them the Holy Spirit, which was meant as a precursor to Pentecost, and said, “Even as the Father has sent Me, I send you.” 

This commission was not just for the apostles but is for us as well as is made clear in Jesus’ prayer in John 17:18-20 where He says, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.”

That means all those verses which tell us why Jesus came into this world would also apply to our role in this world. In the course of this devotional, we will look at some of these verses and see how they apply to us. We begin with John 6:38 which reads as follows:-

“ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

This brings out the importance of recognizing that we are not here to do what we would like to do, but what our Father in Heaven has planned for us. Ps 139:16 and Eph 2:10 tell us that God created us for a specific purpose - and it is this purpose which we must fulfill. 

How do we find the purpose that God has for us? If the desires that we have, are given to us by God, then is God’s purpose found in our desires? Is it found in the skills and the aptitude we are born with? In that case, would simply developing ourselves to the full potential that God has put in us, be the way that we fulfill God’s purpose for our life?

The problem with that approach is that it focuses on self rather than on God. We believe and trust that God has given abilities that He will use according to His plan. While doing what comes naturally to me and flows from life is perfectly acceptable to God, I need to be ready to move out of my comfort zone when God asks me to. After the crucifixion of Jesus, Peter went back to fishing in John 21. Jesus did not fault him for that, but Jesus called him to leave it all for the work God had called him to. 

In the same way, we should be willing to give up whatever we are doing to respond to the call of God when it comes since our life here is not about what we want but what God wants us to do.

God, here I am, send me.