God’s Purpose Is The Key To Our Fulfillment
You can never be totally and completely satisfied until you find your purpose and then live in it.
You cannot do what you are not supposed to do until you discover what you are supposed to do. And if you do what you’re not supposed to do, you will not be fulfilled. You’re wasting time. You’re abusing your life. Stop it right now.
I was speaking about purpose at a church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A lady came up to me after the service and said, ―I’m fifty-six years old, brother. Where were you fifty-six years ago? I said, ―What do you mean? She said, ―You’re the first person ever to come into my life and help me understand that I have a reason for living — and I can’t give an account of fifty-six years right now. Where were you for fifty-six years?
Sometimes people begin to feel like a woman does; they’re distressed because they’ve wasted so much time. If this is your situation, don’t be discouraged. One of the wonderful things about God is that He has a way of restoring the years that the locusts have eaten. (See Joel 2:2326.)
When you go to Him, He knows how to make up for your lost time. Yet God would prefer that we follow Him and know our purpose all our lives. That is why the Word of God firmly says to young people, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth” (Eccl. 12:1). The Bible is saying to us, ―Remember God now — not when you’ve finished partying and ruining your health with drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, so that you say, Well, I’m sick now; I’d better find God. ‘So don’t wait until after you have messed up your life to remember God. God knows how to make up for the time you have lost.
“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” Why? God wants you to remember the Manufacturer early so He can set you on course for your entire life. God didn’t say, ―Remember the university. He didn’t say, ―Remember the school guidance counsellor, or ―Remember what your friends are saying. They can give you only their opinions about what you should do. God said, ―Remember your Creator, the Manufacturer, the One who made you. Remember Him first while you’re young. Why? So that the evil days won’t rob your life. Some of you know what I’m talking about because you’ve been there and now regret it.
Some of you might still be in the middle of it. Others might not be using harmful substances, but you’re still ruining your life. You’re working fourteen hours a day trying to be ―successful, but you’re not doing what you were put on the earth to do. You’re not going to be fulfilled. Wouldn’t it be great to live every day effectively, doing exactly what you were born to do? There’s no fulfillment without knowing your purpose.
Remember the painting of that building on Shirley Street? After I had driven past the sign the second time, the Holy Spirit said to me, ―If you were to Do you know where you’re headed? See the men working on that project, digging up all the mud and muck, all the rocks and everything, making big holes, and if you were to ask them what they were doing, they would say, We’re moving toward that. We are building that. ‘They could tell you exactly where they were headed. I have never forgotten that lesson.
I have a question for you: is your life similar to that? If someone were to ask you what you’re doing, could you tell them you’re headed somewhere? Could you tell them where? Are you so clear about your dream that you could paint a picture of it? If you know where you’re going, then when someone doesn’t understand the reason for the mud, the muck, the water, and the hole, it doesn’t matter. All that might not look right, but you see, that’s the process.
The process gets really messy sometimes. When you’re in the midst of the process, your life might not look like it’s becoming anything. But take careful note: there’s a painting of you. God has painted it for you in His Word. Anytime you get bogged down in the mud and the muck, you can look at that painting every time you get discouraged.
When a person works in construction, sometimes the contractor will tell him just to dig a trench. He can’t see what this trench has to do with anything, but he has to trust him. He digs the trench because he knows the contractor sees things he doesn’t know about. Likewise, God is in the business of constructing us and our lives. He is the Contractor. Sometimes He will tell you to do something, and He won’t explain much about it. You may be in the middle of something right now that He’s told you to do but that you don’t understand; it doesn’t seem to make any sense. You feel like you’re just digging a trench. You’re saying, ―This isn’t what I bargained for.
Maybe your job is a trench. Maybe your marriage is a trench. But when you are pursuing God and His purposes, He’s saying, ―Don’t quit. You don’t understand. Just stay where you are. We’re building something here. Just dig the trench. A man may be able to see the outcome of God’s purposes in his life twenty years into the future or only one day ahead. Yet if he is living in God’s plans for him, he has found the key to his existence.
By Dr. Myles Munroe
