God, Who Do You Say I Am?
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, when Twitter was still called Twitter and social media was still social, I found myself dipping my toe in the water of “internet stuff”, as my local church started a non-profit and tried to get their message out to the masses. I was introduced to a whole world of people earning their keep in their PJ’s from the comfort of their own homes.
With three young children and no overwhelming desire to leave them to go out to work, I decided that I'd like a piece of the working from home action and so embarked upon a journey into entrepreneurialism. I spent the next two years “thing finding”—finding my thing—following the business advice that it was important to know my niche if I wanted to be successful.
I went round and round in circles until finally, in 2012, I gave up “thing finding” and instead decided to simply be me. Thanks to being a total geek, over the course of the previous two years I’d learned all manner of marketable tech skills so I took myself and my skills and set to work helping other business owners share their “thing” with the world instead.
Little did I know then, that I was at the very beginning of a journey that would eventually lead to the realization that our ultimate purpose in life, is to simply be who we are created to be, or what I now like to call to be, “Youier”.
For nearly a decade I helped people be who God created them to be, until one fateful day in April 2021 when, while journaling with God, I heard a whisper: “ask me for an acronym.”
And so I did and of course, because it was God’s question all along, He was very happy to give me an answer:
God: “Youier is You plus i, e, r”.
Me: What’s i,e,r?
God: Intentional, expectant relationship. You being you in an intentional, expectant relationship with me is what you were born for!
Me: That’s brilliant!
But I had questions because that all sounded lovely but surely God was interested in something a bit more specific than that? After all, if ultimately what you and I were created for is to simply be ourselves in relationship with God, we could end up doing and being anything! What kind of madness is that?!
And you’d be right, God did have some specifics in mind when He saw you, knew you and loved you before He laid the foundations of the world. But what I’ve discovered is that figuring out the specifics is a lot more fun if you do it from the position of relationship.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” — Ephesians 2:10
When you focus on doing life with God, intentionally seeking His heart, asking questions expecting an answer, you give God lots of space to share His heart for you about those specifics.
The example I often give when exploring this with folks is the idea of me waking up tomorrow morning and deciding to bake fresh bread for everyone on my street. I’m not a natural baker, I’ve burned pasta—more than once—so if I woke up tomorrow with the sudden urge to bake for everyone but first checked in with God before doing so, what do you imagine He might say? He’d probably suggest I phone my mum and invite her to do it for me because she is amazing at making bread.
Similarly, if my mum woke up tomorrow with an unction to build a website but again, checked in with Holy Spirit first, He’d probably suggest she phone me. My mum does not particularly like tech but, as we’ve already established, I’m a total geek!
Can you see how choosing to focus on relationship first, seeking God’s heart for all things, including the day to day questions about life, has the potential to lead us in the direction of those specifics with a lot less drama than if we try and figure it out on our own?
There are loads of tools and quizzes to help you explore your purpose, from Myers Briggs to Harry Potter sorting hats, and there is nothing wrong with making use of these to help us know ourselves better but it’s time to explore all of them with God.
Do the quiz, get the information but then take it to God for His input and illumination. It’ll make your exploration of purpose much more meaningful and deepen your relationship with the One who made you. Double win!
With all that said, I’m writing from the assumption that you know how to hear God’s voice which, given my own journey, is something of a leap. The truth is that if you love Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit with you 24/7. You can hear from God!
But it’s possible that this is news to you, so if you need some help, Holy Spirit and I wrote a short, sweet and actionable little book to help you get started. It’s called Youier and it’s available as a free gift for readers of The Good Christian Co blog, no email address opt-in or hoops to jump through. Simply click here to download your copy. You can thank me later!
It’s time to stop being confused about who God created us to be and instead step into the fullness of our identities as sons and daughters of the King of kings and Creator of the universe. And it all starts with a simple question:
“Dad, who do you say I am?”
#Youier #purpose #relationship #behavedo