Passion & PurposeSample

The Ongoing Pursuit

As you begin to pursue your God-given potential, you’ll face immediate challenges in your first steps along this journey toward your eternal destiny. You’ll also face the ongoing, daily challenge of maintaining steadfast growth.

I strongly encourage you to do two things: 

• First, broaden your input, even as you focus your output.
• Second, accept only the opportunities you know for certain are God’s plan for you.

The Lord intends for you to keep learning and having new, godly experiences all your life. The more you fulfill your potential, the more you’ll have a need for input, which includes knowledge and wisdom from others and wisdom that comes from experience and application. 

I’d never encourage you to pursue or receive anything that’s contrary to purity or God’s commands. But I strongly encourage you to expand your horizons. Be open to new ways to express your gifts or to serve others. Recognize that you can draw insights from many areas of information—even areas that don’t seem connected to your career field. 

There was a period in my life when a number of people thought I should leave the ministry and go into business, giving up my work as pastor to write books and speak at motivational seminars. The people had numerous reasons for giving me their opinions. A small portion of what they said made sense—at least enough sense that I went to my knees in prayer about their advice.

I asked the Lord, “Do You want me to do something else … leave the place I’ve been and enter these areas being held open to me?” The answer from God was a distinct “no.” He made it very clear I was to continue doing what He’d created, called, and equipped me to do until He told me otherwise.

As you go through life, you’ll face countless opportunities for new memberships, situations, investments, associations, relationships, career opportunities, alliances, and mergers. Not every opportunity is a good one. And with even greater certainty I can tell you, not all of them are sent by God. But as you seek the Father, bringing each opportunity before Him in prayer, He’ll show you the path you’re to follow as you seek to fulfill your purpose here on earth.

As you begin to see more and more of your potential become a reality, and as you live out the purpose God’s planned for you, make sure to subject the following areas of your life to ongoing renewal:

• Continually reaffirm your commitment to the Lord.
• Continually reaffirm your priorities.
• Reestablish your discipline daily.
• Reaffirm your desire to do your best.
• Rekindle your enthusiasm.
• Refresh yourself in the Lord.
• Revisit the vision God has for your life.

You can live in an ongoing state of renewal only if you rely on the Holy Spirit to be your constant and unending source of joy, love, faith, and confidence. Remember that God wants you to fulfill your potential and live out your purpose.

Be sure to choose to want what He wants.