Be Still: 30 Devotions for the Hopeful HeartSample

Discovering Our Purpose

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. PROVERBS 19:21 NIV

Purpose…it’s one of those popular terms in today’s culture, but if you ask everyone for their definition of the word, it is about as elusive as the Loch Ness Monster. And in our hurried culture? It is usually defined by what we can see.

What do our hands do? How are our days spent? We often believe this is proof of whether or not we are pursuing our purpose. While what we do matters, the Lord’s greatest concern is with who we are becoming. Therein lies our true purpose and mission: looking like Jesus.

In general terms, our purpose is to show the love of our heavenly Father to every human soul we encounter so that they may more intimately know Him and long to be with Him too. This cannot happen through words or deeds alone but by becoming more like Jesus. When we begin to resemble our heavenly Father, our heart is infectious, our spirit is magnetic, and our life is like a sunbeam. The King of kings and Almighty God does not need our assistance because it is too much for Him; rather, He allows us to partner with Him so that our life can mean something...so that we can taste true purpose, eternal purpose, a purpose that extends far beyond ourselves and lasts in the next lifetime.

Seeking stillness and adjusting to the rhythm of our God allows us to rightfully define our purpose, looking inwardly to evaluate and test our heart rather than let our life be a performance of what our hands do. When walking in step with Jesus, we can hear Him as He instructs, “A little to the right...there you go” and finding that balance is no longer on our own terms.

Lord, thank You that You desire to mold us, transform us, and use us according to Your purposes. Renew our minds when we begin to define our worth by what our hands are doing and recalibrate us to the truth. Thank You for giving us opportunities to serve You and look more like You. In Jesus’s name, amen.