By Rick Warren.Chapter 1, Day 1:
It All Starts With God.
It's not about me.
The purpose of my life is far greater than my own personal fulfillment, my peace of mind, or even my happiness. It's far greater than my family, my career, or even my wildest dreams and ambitions.
Many people try to use God for their own self-actualization, but that is a reversal of nature and is doomed to failure. "It is God who directs the lives of his creatures, everyone's life is in his power."
I was made for God...not vice versa. Life is about letting God use me for HIS purposes...not me using him for my own purpose. "Obsession with self...is a dead end. Attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life."
Being successful and fulfilling my life's purpose are not at all the same thing.
I could reach all of my persoanl goals, become a raving success by the world's standard, and still miss the purposes for which God created me.
How, then, do I discover the purpose I was created for? I can ask God to reveal it to me. God has not left me in the dark to wonder and guess. He has clearly revealed his purpose for my life through the Bible. The Bible is our Owner's Manual of Life, explaining why we are alive, how life works, what to avoid, and what to expect in my future. It explains what no self-help or philosophy book could know.
God is not the starting point of my life...He is the source of it.
I discover my identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ. I can choose my career, my spouse, my hobbies, too, but I don't get to choose my purpose. The purpose of my life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity...for ME.
Colossians 1:16(b): "Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him."
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