Find Your Purpose

Love God, Love Others

Why am I here? How can I make a difference? These are big questions that can be overwhelming or make us feel lost. There are a lot of ways to answer this question.

When Jesus was asked, “What is the greatest commandment," He had many choices for answers. The Jewish law had over 600 commandments to follow! But Jesus helped bring focus by stating only the two greatest commands: Love God and love others.

Those two commands are like building a house on a solid foundation. Identical foundations can be used to build completely different looking homes. In the same way, the foundation of loving God and loving others will produce unique actions for each person.

Watch this short clip that shows how Sharon found her specific purpose and made her an ordinary angel.

Sharon found her unique way to love God and love others by helping Ed and his girls.

Learning how to love God is an important step in building a good foundation. Loving God is like any other relationship — it begins by engaging in conversation and listening with intention. This involves reading the Bible and praying. Being around other Christians and seeing how they love God can help you grow closer to God as well.

How do you love others? Sometimes it is easy, and sometimes it is hard. However, having the right perspective about God will help you love those He created.

As you love God and love others, your unique purpose will become more clear. It may not look the same as others. It could appear bigger, like Sharon's did with Ed's family. Or it could appear more modest, like encouraging a friend or being kind to a stranger. The goal is to be faithful to how the Lord is leading you. God can use your personality, experiences, passions, and abilities to carve out a unique purpose. The crucial aspect, however, is the firm foundation of loving God and others.

Application questions:

• How are you doing at building your foundation? Are you being intentional in loving God?
• Has loving God affected how you love others? Are you being intentional in loving God and loving others?
• Think about your personality, experiences, passions, and abilities. How do those work together? Ask God to open your heart and give you opportunities to serve around you.