This is probably the most important blog I will write.
Because, just like Jesus taught, it is about the all encompassing purpose for my life, and for everyone’s life, and that is—LOVE!
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” Matthew 22:37-40 MSG. (I’m using The Message translation here because sometimes seeing verses in another translation helps shake us out of a stupor of, “Yea, yea. I’ve heard that a million times.”)
Jesus responded with the above when tested by the religious leaders of the time with the question, “…which is the greatest commandment.”
So we have Jesus’ Word on it. Love is THE most important purpose in anyone’s life. When we love God, ourselves, and others, then we have fulfilled God’s purpose. Just as He says: “…everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
Anyone asking what their purpose in life is, this is it: Love and relationships.
Our first relationship is with God. He desires an intimate relationship with us. He created us and loves us beyond our wildest imagination.
And then we are to love His creations—starting with ourselves and then others.
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!
2 Corinthians 5:16 (NLT)
This is the purity of our purpose. To love from God’s perspective.
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 1 John 4:12
FULL EXPRESSION! Oh, I know I want His Love brought into full expression through me!
So what does love look like in action?
Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way.
It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless.
But love will last forever! 1 Corinthians 13:4-11
Oh yes. That is divine perfection!
But how can we do this? How can we do this impossible command!
What’s impossible with man is possible with God.
He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.” Luke 18:27
“No chance at all,” Jesus said, “if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.” (MSG)
We allow Him to love through us.
Our task is to keep the vessel as clean as possible.
And so I want to emphasize that if we live our lives seeking to do nothing more than to love, we have fulfilled God’s plan and purpose for us.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:33-35
But is there a more specific plan for each life?
Yes.
And this is where our spiritual growth begins.
As we grow closer to God in our loving and seeking, we will come to know Him and His character and His more detailed will for us. We will find ourselves in Him—the true and authentic self He created us to be.
We will discover the specific way He designed us to express Love.
This brings us back again to the theme scripture for Born to Bloom:
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. Ephesians 2:10
When we walk out our path of growth and discovery of all He equipped us with to demonstrate His Love to a hurting world—specific people in and around us—we are fulfilling His purpose in a more expansive way.
There should be no selfishness, pride or comparison. Just a purity of purposeful expression of Love in the way we are designed to do.
Growing into our purpose is ongoing. This is the underlying secondary purpose of our lives. Love first. Spiritual growth next. (becoming more like Him and uniting closer to Him). It’s all entwined, really.
There is no failure in our growth. When we so call “fail” in the natural realm, that is merely a point of growth in Him. And He can take “the failure” and make it something good. He uses everything. So we needn’t fear stepping out as we begin our discovery journey of growth.
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28
Or as Romans 8:28 says in The Message Bible: That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
There it is again—“our lives of love for God.”
You see?
It’s all about Love and Spiritual Growth.
So don’t worry or fret or be anxious about anything. As you walk this path, He is with you. Love is with you. { God is love. }
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 1 John 4:16b-17
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Jesus Prom: Life Gets Fun When You Love People Like God Does ~ Jon Weece
Now that we’ve laid the foundation of love, let’s move on to talking about our personal purpose. And we need to fully surrender to God in order to discover and walk in that purpose.
LINK: Surrender: beautiful, and sometimes painful, surrender