A Purpose-Full People. Part 1: Where Purpose Starts
God created you with one-of-a-kind potential and placed you on earth for a specific purpose. Due to the busyness of life, you’ve likely never identified your unique calling in a way that brings life-changing clarity. Most haven’t and like a distinct echo, the promise of a vision-guided life remains illusive, drowning under the demands of life.
Your divine design—God’s design for your life—is more knowable than you realize. You are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he has prepared in advance, that you should walk in them. With the right tools, you can discover your life vision and align your life vocation. You can and should know your Life Younique—your God-given identity and your God-inspired dreams. Most importantly, you can discern and design the practical next steps to get there.
THE QUICK SUMMARY – The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren
This book has transformed millions of lives. Are you ready for a change?
Since its release, The Purpose Driven Life has been translated into eighty-five different languages and has become the “Bestselling non-fiction hardback book in history” according to Publisher’s Weekly, all because of the Christ-centered approach the book takes to answering life’s most fundamental question: What on earth am I here for?
This new softcover edition is reimagined for a new generation, with four new features including:
- Video introductions by Rick Warren to chapters 1-42
- An audio lesson at the end of each chapter, with more than thirty additional hours of teaching by Rick Warren
- Two new bonus chapters on the most common barriers to living a purpose-driven life
- Access to an online community where you can discuss your journey to purpose, get feedback, and receive support
On your journey you’ll find the answers to three of life’s most important questions: The Question of Existence: Why am I alive?, The Question of Significance: Does my life matter?, The Question of Purpose: What on earth am I here for?
Living out the purpose you were created for moves you beyond mere survival and success to a life of significance—the life you were meant to live.
A SIMPLE SOLUTION – Acknowledge that your purpose starts with God
As we consider our purpose in life, it is only natural that we start with ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like “What do I want to be?” and “What should I do with my life?” and “What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for the future?”
That’s the wrong starting point for understanding our purpose in life.
Focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose. In spite of the hundreds of self-help books found in the bookstore shelves, you can’t discover your life purpose by looking inward.
You must begin with God – your creator.
Your were made by God and for God – and until you understand that, life will never make sense.
It’s not about you.
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.
God is not just the starting point of your life; he is the source of it. To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God’s Word, not the world’s wisdom. You must build your life on eternal truths, not pop psychology, success-motivation, or inspirational stories.
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life
A NEXT STEP
We learn a great deal from stories of other people’s lives. Auxano Founder and Team Leader Will Mancini points to a great source for understanding how God is the source of our life by looking at five biblical principles for discerning your personal vision from the Scriptures.
In material taken from Chip Ingram’s book “Good to Great in God’s Eyes,” Will looks at Ingram’s “Sanctified Dreaming.” Ingram does a great job of anchoring his insights in Scripture and is sensitive to the problem of chasing dreams for self-fulfillment rather than God’s glory.
Here are his principles for dreaming God-sized dreams, each taken from the life of a biblical character.
#1 God commands us to step out of our comfort zone (ABRAHAM)
#2 God puts his dream in your heart (JOSEPH)
#3 God allows us to fail in our attempts to accomplish his dream in our own power. (MOSES)
#4 God teaches us through adversity to love the dream giver more than the dream. (DAVID)
#5 God clarifies our calling in times of crisis and often uses our worst failures as the platform for his future fulfillment. (PAUL)
Over the next week, invest some personal study time in each of the above character’s lives, making specific application to lessons needed in your own life development.
Ask a close friend or trusted mentor to share this personal calling journey with you. Discuss your discoveries from the above exercise with them and prayerfully establish one next step to take over the next few weeks.
Excerpt taken from SUMS Remix 75-1, published September 2017.
This is part of a weekly series posting excerpts from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders.
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As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS Remix provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox).
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Tags: Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, SUMS Remix
