Years ago God put a purpose on my life. Unfortunately, like many, I ignored that purpose. It wasn’t until I grew, both in age and maturity, that I truly understood my purpose. However, even after knowing what God had called me to do, I still wanted to do it my way. Shortly after my spiritual awakening, a series of life changing events happened. Events that caused me to not only turn from God, but to be mad at Him as well. I know now that this was, in part, an attack from the enemy keeping me from fulfilling my purpose. I think that if I had been a stronger Christian back then the outcome would have been a lot different.
As a child, I was more or less raised as a Baptist. However, my step-dad didn’t allow us to follow our faith. We never went to church. If I was caught reading my Bible or praying, I would be hit. My Bible had been thrown across the room more times than I can remember. I dreamed of the day I would be able to leave home. That day came, when I joined the military, pretty much straight out of high school. It was there that I attended my first church service and something happened. I felt God’s presence. It startled me, but then I wanted that feeling again. I spent years looking for God so I could experience that feeling again. But I didn’t know how to find Him, and never thought I could. Truth be told, God was right there with me the whole time.
As a young man, I was finally able to follow my faith. I wasn’t sure where to start, but knew getting into church was the first step. Although I went to church in my younger years, after leaving home. I was just “going” to church. I wasn’t “in” the church or part of the overall church family. To me, at the time, attending church was much like having an appointment at the doctor for a checkup. Sunday morning would come along and I would go to my church appointment and get my weekly checkup, then go back out into the world feeling refreshed. Later after leaving the military, I had the overwhelming feeling that something was missing in my life. A few months passed and then God revealed His calling on my life and the plan He had for me. The verse below shows us that God will call on us to do His work — His plan.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
My take on the verse above is simple. God will call us according to HIS purpose, not ours. When it’s His purpose, all things will work together for good. So, once we learn our gift (and everyone has a gift, given by God at birth.) from God, we must use that gift according to His (God’s) purpose. In doing so, all things — all works, that we do will come together to produce good fruit for God, for us, and the world around us.
If you ignore your gift, you are denying God’s purpose for your life. If you acknowledge your gift but use it for your purpose, then you are still denying God. Only when you know your gift and use it according to HIS purpose will the things in your life come together, to fulfill God’s plan.