Just the other day, one of my daughter’s toys needed new batteries. I didn’t feel like going downstairs to get a screwdriver, so I grabbed a butter knife from the kitchen drawer, unscrewed the screws, and replaced the batteries. Then I used the same butter knife to put the screws back and voila, the toy worked again. The lesson here is that even though the purpose for the butter knife was not to be a screwdriver it was able to accomplish the task. What I haven’t yet mentioned is that the butter knife slipped out several times while I was screwing and unscrewing and the handle wasn’t comfortable to hold during the process. For those of you who want to get technical, it wasn’t ergonomically designed for the task. Although I was able to complete the task it would have been better suited for the purpose for which it was designed, to butter and cut bread.
Like the butter knife turned screwdriver, many of us are doing some things in life that we were not designed to do. We are able to do them and complete certain tasks and assignments, but those things aren’t what God specifically designed and created us to do. Think about the gifts, talents and abilities that come naturally to you and ask yourself if they are truly being used to their highest degree? Are you utilizing all of your abilities or simply living life using your capabilities? In other words, as a human being you and I are generally able to do many things but that doesn’t mean they are the things we need to or should be doing. It definitely doesn’t mean it’s what God created you to do. God doesn’t do things because He’s bored. He doesn’t do anything that isn’t fully thought out and faithfully carried out. He isn’t schizophrenic. He won’t call you to do something today and change His mind next week. He doesn’t make mistakes, errors, blunders, mishaps, failures, flaws or oopsies. Colossians 1:16 shows how intentional and purposeful God is in His creation, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” If He designed you with specific talents, characteristics, gifts and an anointing to accomplish a certain purpose, then that is what He wants and needs you to do. So often, people try and fix themselves to fit a certain ideal of what they think they should look like or who they think they should be, but they haven’t consulted their heavenly manufacturer to understand His thought process in making them. You were created purposefully. You have been created on purpose with a purpose! Make this a consistent mantra in your life.
At this point some of you may feel like you have spent so long doing the wrong thing that you don’t know how to get right. Rest assured. Every day that you wake up is another opportunity to get it right. Maybe you even started that process years ago but then got distracted or fell off for one reason or another. Maybe you have put your true purpose on hold or on your to-do list. To you I say one word, “FINISH!” In a world full of starters, be a finisher. You were born to PRODUCE a change in the earth. The world needs your influence. It’s easy to be frustrated with external influences. It’s hard to affect change by BEING influential. Do the HARD thing! Make a commitment to God, yourself, and the world, to deliver what God placed inside of you. Ecclesiastes 7:8a says, “The end of a thing is better than its beginning.” This is only true if the end includes completion.
Ask yourself what was I birthed to birth?
God bless you for this post. I’ve been struggling so hard to do it my way but I realize I need him to help show me through!
Absolutely!
I don’t like my current position. I work with special education children and I’m so busy maintaining respect in the classroom for the teachers I’m drained. Drained of being happy going to work, often contemplating just swiping out for the last time almost everyday. I’m being verbally abused by kids and nothing happens by administrators. I think to myself after I read the blog “Why are you still punching in? Clearly because I need the money. My fear is that I will act irrationally and give up. Today I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders so I walked around the school trying to calm myself down I started to breathe heavily and cry. My boss hugged me and said “don’t let it get to you I’ll fix it ” told me to go home and take a nap and she will talk to me later in the day.
I don’t know what my purpose is and often find my thought tangled as I attempt to ask God what my purpose is.
My heart is with special needs children that I know but is that my purpose.
As a result of work struggles my prayer life and studying the word of God is off. My home life lack patience and compassion often. This doesn’t feel good
This is a common situation – doing something you don’t love because we need to work. However, your purpose could still be attached to your love for special needs kids but you need to seek God for the vision on how to carry out your purpose. There is hope! But the solution starts with seeking Him! Don’t be scared to do that.