There is no better way of saying what an esteemed Pastor says so well: “You have a pulse? You have a purpose.” I wholly adopt that pithy expression, and hope that it resonates with you.
Do you sometimes feel your best days are behind you? Too many missed opportunities, too many wrong turns? Too far gone in a lifestyle that you know is less than ideal, but you’ve become comfortable with, or even too old or set in your ways to make changes?
You are not alone in your fear or lack of faith in the possibility of change.
Let us start with this: you woke up this morning.
Whether you did so with all your faculties intact, or with a hangover from a night you can barely remember, or with the constant guilt that hangs over your head or around your neck – it doesn’t matter. You are here and you are breathing. That means there is still hope for you. You can make a change, and do something different, meaningful. You can fulfil God’s purpose for your life. He has the continuing hope that He can work with you to accomplish something in the world.
I promise you that this is not a feel-good message that takes no account of your present dire circumstances.
Know this: however far from your dream of a worthy life your life has turned into, however meaningless, unfulfilled, or regret-filled your life has become, you do have a God-given purpose for being on this earth. It does not matter how much of a detour your life has taken from what you hoped it would be. The journey is not over if you do not want it to be; you can return to the right path, but only if you want to. The will to do so is yours; you must be willing to make a change and choose change, but the power to bring about the desired change, God will supply.
Are you willing?
In the Book of Acts, the Bible introduces a man called Saul, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, of the sect of the Pharisees, learned in the law, and too ambitious for his own good. In the period after the resurrection of Jesus Christ when the Church was born, no one could be farther from the will of God than He was. Wanting to excel in the religion of Judaism in which he had been raised and trained, he was in the forefront of the move to stamp out Christianity from the face of the earth. Like his compatriots, he believed that the way to do this was to arrest Christians and to torture or kill them. In his zeal, he decided to go outside Judea, to Syria where persecuted Christians had gone to hide. He sought for, and received authority from the rulers of his day (the Chief Priests) to go and arrest such Christians and bring them in chains to Jerusalem for punishment.
After a spiritual encounter with Jesus, he turned from his ambition and his plan for upward mobility in his chosen career of the law, to doing what God wanted. It was a far cry from what he had imagined. The lawyer became, as he put it, “the offscouring of all things” and a spectacle. Despite the ill-treatment he endured at the hands of the rulers of the then known world as he preached the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he was able to say at the end of his life that he had fulfilled his purpose.
What about you?
It starts with acknowledging that you have strayed far from God and His ways. It continues with your decision to turn from the path you are on of which you are not proud. You go further by telling God these in prayer, confessing that you are a sinner, far from God and His ways; then you ask for the salvation that He offers through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Commit to living in obedience to Him. Learn about Him through fellowship with other believers and seek to know Him through His Word.
Choose His way over yours and everything that is contrary to His. He will never turn you away. He will not hide His will from you (John 6: 37, 40). He will joyfully and gently teach you how to live purposefully. He will lead you into a life of purpose (Matthew 11:28-30).
It starts with you, and it starts today if you will let Him lead.
You are good to go.
