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"Show us, O God, as much of thy purpose, because we have it, as shall steady us. We do not ask that the way be made smooth, or even that thou wouldst bestow upon us now the strength which thou hast promised. We ask only for the grace to use what thou hast already provided in Christ Jesus. Amen."
"Show us, O God, as much of thy purpose, because we have it, as shall steady us." So prays an old collect of the church. What is God's purpose? Is it the same as Rick Warren's in his purpose-driven life? It's not about you; it's about God, Warren attests. It all starts with God. "You were born 'by' his purpose and 'for' his purpose."
So far, so good. There is a roadblock to discovering this self-shattering, God-affirming purpose, however. And the roadblock is precisely my self-centered self--me, myself, and I. God is in us by faith alone--faith in Him alone, from Him alone, begotten by Him alone, through His Word alone.
So, we won't find our life's purpose by looking inside ourselves but by looking into God's Word--and God's Word alone! It is much more than an owner's manual, as Warren suggests. It is God's self-revelation, His self-giving as well as His grand plan--to save us from ourselves and our topsy-turvy world, and from the one who topples us all and turns the whole world upside down, the devil, as well as from the means he uses to achieve his evil ends.
Though many a self-centered individual tries to use God for his own self-actualization as a kind of personal genie to grant all his wishes, and although we were made for God and not God for us, as Warren asserts, nevertheless life is about more than letting God use us for His purposes rather than vainly trying to use Him for ours, as the author also asserts.
I would suggest, first and foremost, that life is about getting out of God's way and letting God be God (not that He needs or heeds our permission)--He is going to anyway since He is so aleady--and letting Him have His way with us. (He's going to, anyway, since He is God!)
And since this requires faith--first and foremost, next to God--I would suggest that the key to a purpose-driven life is God and God-given faith, first and last. Once that Genie, God, is out of the bottle, look out! You won't need Aladdin's lamp. You've got God and God-generated faith. You've got God's Word as a lamp to your feet and a light for your path.
And since our purposes are God-given and not self-generated, and since they are the fruit of God-given faith and not of ourselves or our own selfish devices, if we have such faith in God, that is, I would suggest that our life is faith-driven not purpose-driven, to begin with.
To characterize our life as purpose-driven, I would suggest, is to put the cart before the horse. We get nowhere fast. And since in Christ our lives are faith-driven, it's because that Genie is out of the bottle. You can't keep Him bottled up. He pops the cork or else He bursts the bottle. Either way, He breaks the bottleneck.
In the ancient collect we began with, having asked God to show us as much of His purpose, because we have it, because He's given it to us in and by His Word through faith, as shall by His Spirit steady us along His way in route to Him, especially when the going gets tough, we pray, "We do not ask that the way be made smooth, or even that thou wouldst bestow upon us now the strength which thou hast promised."
We do not ask this because we know that He is the Way inasmuch as He is the point of departure (the Truth) and our final destination (the Life), even when we get in His way--especially then. We do not ask, because in Him, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the tough get going, particularly when the going gets tough!
Therefore we need not ask the way anymore than we need to ask that it be made smooth. And, as for the strength to walk in that way, we need not ask it, either. For He Himself is our Strength. And He Himself accompanies us and carries us through--all the way. "We ask only for the grace to use what thou hast already provided in Christ Jesus. Amen."
For His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways His ways, thank God! For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts. Praise the Lord! And these are His thoughts and His ways--His purposes for us.
You believe in God; believe also in Him, God's Son--the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Come to the Father through Him. "Therefore purge out the old leaven," the yeast of self-given, purpose-driven lives in lieu of God-given, faith-driven ones yielding the good fruit of godly purpose.
For this, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, that we may be new lumps, and not just lumps on a log, since in Him we truly are unleavened. "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor 5:6-8). Amen.
- Pastor Erickson