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HAVE YOU DISCOVERED YOUR PURPOSE YET?

  • Writer: Olufunmilayo Adekusibe
    Olufunmilayo Adekusibe
  • Oct 5, 2023
  • 3 min read

Readings:

1 Timothy 1:15-17

Psalm 113:1-7

Luke 6:43-49



Let us Pray: Lord, I place myself and all that I care about into Your loving hands. Guide my thoughts, my words and my actions. Fill me with a consciousness of your presence, in and around me. Let my biggest motivation always be to please you in all that I say and do through Christ our Lord. Amen.


“Christ is my rock, my refuge, my stronghold…” This hymn is a declaration of purpose. It is a statement about your relationship with God and your place in the world. Most people think of purpose as “finding something you are good at” in order “to get the thing you need to be happy.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Your purpose is found in your relationship with your Maker and the things you do for others and not just for yourself.


Jesus illustrates purpose using two analogies: the tree and its fruits, a building and its foundation. A good tree produces good fruits. A bad tree, bad fruits. A building with a good foundation withstands a flood. One with a faulty foundation will crumble. So, what makes a tree good and a foundation solid?


Jesus provides us with three ingredients for a purposeful life:

  • Prayer - "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God" (CCC, no. 2559, citing St. John Damascene, De Fide Orth. 3, 24).

  • Prayer is a "vital and personal relationship with the living and true God" (CCC, no. 2558). Christian prayer establishes "communion with Christ" (CCC, no. 2565), and a "covenant relationship between God and a person in Christ (CCC, no. 2564). Through our words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh, enabling our hearts to “be present to Him to whom we are speaking in prayer” (ccc 2700). Prayer is not just “touch and go”. It must become the air that you breathe and your consciousness all day long. This way, the devil and his agents will never catch you off-guard.

  • Study of God’s word - God speaks to us through his Word. Daily study of God’s word is a loving conversation with your bestie. It is the essential ingredient of a true and lasting relationship with God. Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him” (John 14:23). A poor knowledge of scripture is the reason our prayer life is poor. And when our prayer life suffers, we enter into a crisis of faith and identity. In other words, the flood of life (trials, tests and temptations) beats down our edifice and washes it away.

  • Good works – If prayer and study of Scriptures are the trunk and branches of our lives, then good works are the fruits. If the fruits of your life are good and sweet it is because you have nurtured your relationship with God well. Your best intentions will be very poor without good spiritual backing.

  • If you are only concerned about money, fame (to “blow”) and power, you have not found your purpose yet. You have only discovered an ambition and the needed motivation to be selfish. Purpose is always selfless and motivated by sacrifice.

  • Your purpose is “the reason you do what you do”. Your vocation (your state of life whether married, single or consecrated, or your career path) is how you fulfil your purpose. If your purpose is not aligned with God, then the devil will offer you employment. We see this clearly in how “good people” align themselves with bad projects because of money or fame. God is not pleased with such and the end of such a venture is colossal failure.

JUDE-MARY OWOH



Prayer:

  1. I will extol You, O lord, for You have lifted me up; and have not let my foes rejoice over me, in Jesus name.

  2. In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be ashamed; deliver me in Your righteousness, in Jesus name.

  3. Dearest Lord, open my ears to hear your voice in all that I learn from Scriptures, the different events and persons I meet today, in Jesus name.

  4. Soften my heart with the dew of divine grace so that I may put Your word into practice for the glory of your name, in Jesus name.

  5. O Lord, reconcile cracked and broken marriages in the community of faith, in Jesus name. Amen. Happy Sunday.

 
 
 

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