Day 3 of 4:

I Will Give You Purpose

Not only has God saved us and freed us, He has promised to do something significant through us. God has not just saved us from something, but He has saved us for something. 

When we submit ourselves to God, He frees us from the grip of sin and wrong thinking and reveals His purpose for us. Every Christian shares the same general purpose: to love God and honor Him. But how each of us fulfills that purpose will look different. There is something specific God planned for each of us to do from the beginning of time. 

Jesus is the best example of this. Jesus lived to bring glory to God (John 6:37-39). But God’s plan all along was to allow Jesus to die for our sins so we could be made right with Him. 

Paying the penalty for our sin was something only Jesus could do. Sin requires a perfect sacrifice. So to free us from sin once and for all would require the ultimate, perfect sacrifice (Romans 6:23). Being fully human and fully God, Jesus was the only perfect person to ever walk the Earth and the only person who could have fulfilled God’s plan to restore our relationship with Him. 

Just as Jesus was the only one who could fulfill His calling, we also have a specific role in God’s plan. We are “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). 

We’ll never fulfill our purpose if we’re constantly comparing ourselves to our neighbors. Like runners in a race, we will lose focus and veer off course if we’re worried about what’s happening in the next lane. 

We don’t have to worry about what anyone else is doing or strive to do something significant with our lives. God is the Master, and we are His masterpiece. He’s already created and equipped us for every work He prepared in advance for us to do. 

Pray

God, thank you for redeeming me for a purpose. Show me the works you’ve prepared in advance for me, and the race you’ve called me to run. Help me see the ways you masterfully created me to bring you glory. 

Challenge

What has God called you to do with your life? These two questions can help reveal what your calling might be:

• What burdens you or keeps you up at night?
• What opportunities do you have right now to make a difference in that area?

Burden + Opportunity = Calling 

Ephesians 2:1-10 King James Version

1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

² Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

³ Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

⁵ Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

⁶ And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

⁷ That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Philippians 2:12-13 King James Version

¹² Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

¹³ For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.