What is your purpose? Part III - Stewardship

What does the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 have to do with your God given purpose?  More than you might think.  There is one more thought that we need to add to the recent blog post, “What is your purpose?”  We looked at three areas where you need to explore your God given purpose.  God wants you to make a significant contribution to our world through your career, your personal life and your Church ministry. 

There is one more thought that needs to be added to this series, Your God Given purpose is a gift from God to give Glory to God.

In the Parable of the Talents, three servants are given money by the Master of the House.  Each of the servants has to care for the money while the Master is gone.  There are three thoughts about this reading that apply to your God given purpose:

1. Your purpose comes from God – In this parable the money comes from the master, the servants have not earned the money themselves.  Sometimes we forget where our God given purpose comes from; we believe that we have earned it.  We can have the attitude that we have worked hard to get ourselves into the position we are in.  We believe that it is our study and diligence that got us into the Career or Hobby or Community group.  Yet if we have to be honest it is God’s grace that gave us the ability to study, the ability to work and the opportunity to take on the tasks that we taken on in our career, personal life or ministry.

How are you using your God given purpose to give glory to God?

2. Your purpose goes back to God - We can so often focus on what the servants did with their “talents” that we forget that they had to give the money back.  We are given stewardship over our God given purpose not ownership.  We are accountable to God for the opportunities that come our way when we are following our God given purpose.  The history of our Church and the Bible are full of stories where God gives and takes away.  The book of Job in the Bible is the story of faithfulness when God takes away the blessings in Job’s life.  We need to realise that we steward our purpose until God wants us to move on.

How are you stewarding your God given purpose?

3. Your purpose is teaching you about faithfulness – At the end of the parable the Master takes the small amount of money off one servant and gives it to another.  Sometimes we can be worried that we are not reaching our potential.  Yet if we read this parable, we can see that if we are faithful in the small opportunities, greater opportunities will come our way.  Perhaps God is using the season that you are in to prepare you for a greater season in the coming years.  Your faithfulness now can help you reach your God given purpose in the years to come.

Are you being faithful to the small parts of your God given purpose?

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Please join us next week as we begin another topic that will enhance your ministry in your local community.

What is your purpose? Part II - Seasons

In a recent blog post, we had a look at “What is your purpose?”  We explored three areas that you need to explore your God given purpose.  God wants you to make a significant contribution to our world through your career, your personal life and your Church ministry.  Over the course of our life we will change jobs, hobbies and ministries many times.  We can think of these periods as seasons, just like the seasons of the weather. 

• Spring: We need seasons for preparation and growing.  The spring seasons in our life can be exciting but it also require a lot of patience. Perhaps you are doing further study for a new position in ministry or a new job.  In our personal life we go through “spring cleaning” when we want to create space for a new activity to enter. 
• Summer: We all have season of busyness.  If your career, hobbies and ministry all seem to be firing up you can feel great because you are achieving a lot.  In our busy seasons we can also feel that we are really living during the summer seasons of our life.
• Autumn: We all go through seasons of decline.  Our career, personal life and ministry can’t be constantly growing.  Sometimes we loose momentum or perhaps we are ready for a change.  How we manage our autumn seasons can really determine the productivity of our next spring.
• Winter: We all need a seasons of rest every once in a while.  We all need to take a break and regain our energy levels.  God wants us to take a weekly Sabbath (Sunday) and we should take a regular sabbatical.  How long since your last resting season?

If you were to look at each of the three areas below, could you see alignment in the seasons?  Perhaps you are living the perfect life because you have a good balance of the seasons in your life.  Or perhaps you are fast approaching burn out and the seasons you are in are warning you of what is coming.  To continue to fulfil your God given purpose you should ask yourself these three questions:

1. What season is your career in? If you want your career to reach its God given potential, you have to have seasons of rest so you can be productive during each growth season.  Plan out your year so that your career matches the seasons you go through.  Become aware of the seasons in your career to maintain your purpose for longer.

2. What season is your personal life in? There are seasons for growth and seasons for loss.  Remember that there is a time for every season under Heaven.  When you take care of yourself, you will be in a much better position to make a significant contribution to our world.

3. What season is your Church ministry in?  You will be going to Church every week for the rest of your life.  It would be boring if there weren’t changes.  You need spring times to keep you growing spiritually.  Whilst we would rather avoid the dry times, even the Saints went through dry times with God.  The key to finding your God given purpose in the Church is to find the ministry that gives you life rather than drains life.

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What is your purpose?

In a recent blog post, we had a look at “what fires you up?”  We had a look at our passions, the things that we are discontent with and things that we enjoy doing.  There is a sense that many things could fill any one of these categories.  Over a life time there will many things that we are passionate about and many things we will get involved in.  But how do we narrow our focus to one key purpose for our life?

If we look at famous people they can be know for one key purpose that they undertake.  Mother Teresa did many things but her driving purpose was the poor people on the streets of Calcutta.  St Ignatius did many things in his life but his driving purpose was the establishment and growth of the Jesuits.

Whilst we may not achieve fame and fortune in our own life, God wants us to do something significant with our life.  Here are three areas where you need to define your purpose in life:

1. What is the purpose of your career? We can move from job to job but what is driving your decision about which job to stay in?  Many people chase money or status in their career but never find true fulfilment.  To really find meaning in your career you must find the jobs that match your life’s purpose.  If you find yourself in job that doesn’t give meaning to your life, God might be calling you onto other things.  To find the purpose of your career, take the lead from three areas in the post “what fires you up?”.

2. What is the purpose of your personal life? Again there are many hobbies or interests that you will have in your personal life, but some of them are not where you make a significant contribution to society.  In your personal life you should spend your valuable spare time making a difference in the community.  You should spend your spare time with a sense of purpose rather than distraction or entertainment.

Have you ever asked someone why they give up hours each week to a “hobby”?  My father will spend most weekends umpiring baseball because he feels he can make a difference in the sport.  Many people take on coaching or umpiring positions in sport so they can make a difference.  Many people commit years of time to community service agencies such as the Bush Fire Brigade so they can make a difference.   How is your personal life making our society a better place?

3. What is your purpose in the Church?  There are many things that need your time in our Church.  There is always more work to be done in your ministry.  The people who get burnt out in ministry are often people who are taking on too much.  If you look at people who spend decades serving the Church they usually have narrowed their focus to their main purpose in the church.  For example there are catechists who have served for 30 year because they are passionate about children in state schools.  For a given season you might serve in a ministry that really needs you, but to serve the Church for your entire life, you have to answer the question “what is your purpose in the Church?”

Perhaps you are going through a season where your purpose in all three of these areas has alignment.  On the other hand perhaps you are going through a season where your purpose is unclear in all three areas.  Whatever your situation is, pray that God will lead you to make a significant contribution in your career, personal life and the Church.  

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