The Purpose

Jesus' refusal was curt: "Beat it, Satan!" He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: "Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness."
Matthew 4:10 The Message Bible

At work, we had a little chat about bucket lists - who wants to do what, when, where, and how the lists may have changed and evolved over the years. Many had to do with seeing far away places in the world. Just as many were very specifically individual pursuits even though the ones who commented were married. I thought it was also interesting to note that the vast majority of the lists had nothing to do with accomplishing more or "higher" goals in the chosen career field.

Over the last week, there have been quite a few remarks about people's perceptions of what they were born to do. It's been enlightening, to say the least.

Have you ever given that serious thought? Have you ever listened for God's answer as to how or why He created you? He has a plan, you know. He had a plan for your life when He created you in your mother's womb.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT tells us, For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

There's an old song - Born to Serve the Lord - that just has wonderful words to it. The second verse tells it all:

For I was made in His likeness
Created in His Image
But I was born to serve the Lord.
And I won't deny Him
I'll always walk beside Him
for I was born to serve the Lord.

This is the reason we have eyes, ears, legs, etc. We truly were born to serve the Lord - and to serve Him with singleness of purpose. Is your life serving a purpose? More specifically, is your life serving HIS purpose?

Prayer:

Father,
           Let our hands serve our neighbor, our eyes read Your Word, our hearts follow You, our feet walk only in Your footsteps as You go before us making the crooked way straight. You created us to serve, Father. Help us to walk single-heartedly in our purpose. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

The Cheap Stuff

In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.

2nd Timothy 2:20-21 NLT

I have a confession to make. There are times when reading through the old testament, where the passages about the laws or the numbers seem interminably long so that I want to just skim over and move on. I mean, can you even imagine having to number 603,550 Israelites - let alone record the names of each of those 603,550 Israelites by hand? And that's just the men age 20 and up, fit to fight in the army, and not counting the Levites (book of Numbers, Chapter 1 and 2). And we tend to grumble about extra keystrokes.

However, the older I get, the more I appreciate the eye to detail and begin to understand the perfection of it all. God was and is very specific because He is in all the details. He is holy, therefore unclean or unholy cannot abide in His presence apart from the sacrificial blood. In the old testament, that was more animals than we care to count to shed blood for our sins. With more praise and gratitude than I am able to express - thanks to Christ and the Cross of Calvary - we don't have to shed any more blood for sin. And we can come into the Holy of Holies, entering by the Blood of the Lamb.

If we think about it in relation to our Promise for Today, we realize we are no longer the cheap stuff. We were bought with a price too great! And we must make the necessary choices to remain pure so that we are fit for our purpose - which is honorable use by the Master for every good work.

Prayer:

Father,
           We invite the Holy Spirit to live large in us! We want to be a veritable orchard - full of the fruit of the Spirit - especially self-control so that we make the righteous choices to remain pure and fit for purpose by You! In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen