We all need a purpose

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (Philippians 4:6-7)

What is your purpose in life? If you are like me, you spent quite a bit of time in your youth and young adult life just trying to figure that one out. Some of you may not even have a clue yet! It is only after we understand our purpose in Jesus that we can begin to live a meaningful life. Our main purpose in life is to follow Christ with our whole hearts - allowing him to be the central part of our lives. All the other 'stuff' we pursue as some form of 'purpose' in our lives really is an outflow of his grace in our lives.

As this chapter unfolds, we find the reminder: "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will GUARD your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. How does this peace actually help us to walk within the purpose God has for us? When we learn to rejoice in our salvation and actually realize God is always present with us wherever we go and whatever we do, we begin to find peace with what it is we come to realize as our 'purpose' in life. 

As we are reminded, we are to worry less and pray more. I think we spend a whole lot of time 'worrying' our way toward a 'purpose' and far less time than we should 'praying' with purpose. Did you catch that? We spend time 'pursuing' purpose, while God asks us to take time to live within our purpose, communing with him. As Paul goes on within this chapter, he wants us to know all that worrying over things far outside of our control is really serving one purpose - to keep us away from fulfilling God's purpose within our lives. Instead, we are to take those things to God in prayer - worry over nothing, pray about everything (4:6-7)

Maybe we would 'feel' a bit more 'in tune' with God's purpose for our lives if we learned to turn our thoughts toward the things he actually wants us to be thinking about. As we begin to meditate on good and true thoughts (4:8), focusing on godly examples and our own behavior (4:9), we begin to see this is not really about our 'self-man'. It is about him - this daily walk becomes a thing in which we find great contentment and fulfillment. If we are not fulfilled in our daily walk, it could just be a result of us not drawing near to him. Just sayin!