JESUS IN MESample

Embracing the Purpose of the Holy Spirit

I remember, early in our marriage, lying in bed gazing out the window late at night with my husband quietly sleeping beside me. I looked up at the star-studded sky and felt a longing for something more. It was a yearning that was not completely satisfied by the birth of our first child or the Sunday night Bible study we offered in our home for university athletes or the Thursday morning Bible study I shared with several other young women my age. Actually, the routine of responsibility—making the bed, fixing breakfast, washing the dishes, going to work, doing the laundry, fixing supper, washing the dishes, crawling in bed, going to sleep, then repeating the entire litany of responsibility the next day—just intensified my yearning.

Looking back, I know that the yearning in the deep well of my being was a yearning for a life of significance, for a cause to live for that was bigger than myself. It was a yearning for purpose.

Have you, too, sensed a restless emptiness deep within? We all do at times. One reason is that we are created in the image of God, with a capacity to know Him in a personal, permanent relationship, for the purpose of bringing Him glory. Until that purpose is fulfilled, we will be empty, deeply dissatisfied, and unfulfilled as we continually try to fill the void with substitutes.

But what about those of us who have established a personal, permanent relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ? Why are some of us also restless and dissatisfied, yearning for something greater? The only viable answer seems to be the Holy Spirit, who begins to work in us a desire to live for a purpose greater than ourselves.

In some ways, our lives are like a symphony. And the Holy Spirit is the conductor. He is the one who brings forth the beautiful music of a life that glorifies God. Like the conductor pointing his baton, the Holy Spirit quickens us, guides us, ignites us, shapes us, and equips us until our lives resound with the glory of the Lord. This is the yearning we each have deep within us, the desire to glorify God with our lives.

When have you felt most purposeful in your life? Why do you think that was?