Working from your Holy Discontent (Finding Purpose)

Do you believe that your job is reflective of what your natural gifts and abilities are?If you answered yes, that is awesome.  You are in the minority and you can exercise greater influence because you believe that you are walking in your calling.As for some of us who got into jobs because that was what you were offered, or it paid well, we need to ask the question, “Are we living our best/most purposeful life?” 

Made to for a Purpose

The world has believed a lie that we are purposeless beings and are here to work, pay bills, save and retire as early as possible. All of which are good things, yet are incredibly self-serving. You could have started off life believing that this is what we should do; however, God says otherwise.

Ephesians 2:10 says “For we his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” God created us on purpose, for a purpose.

It is interesting that in Genesis we are told that everything that God created in the garden had a purpose, and God placed a seed in it to reproduce after its own kind. God created oak trees, once, with a seed within, to reproduce more oak trees. Everything has a seed within, including us. Yes, we have a seed to multiply, but its way more than that. God has given us the ability to grow a vision and to feed a passion that he has placed in us.So, what stops us from accomplishing this vision and purpose? The fear of failure, the failure of success even. We can be in a place of comfort and complacency. Basically, if you don’t want to embrace your purpose, you will find a reason to back down, rather than take a step of faith. Perhaps someone spoke an unkind word against your vision or discouraged you, and you allowed those words to affect you deeply. Maybe the words were spoken by people who were meant to be beacons of light, maybe they were your parents.

God's Word About You

I want to encourage you today, to allow those words to lose their hold over you and rather hear what God’s word says about you. After all, He is the one who placed this potential inside you, not your earthly parents. Let God’s truth about you, be the ultimate truth and let everything else be a lie. (Romans 3: 4 “…Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar…”)Bill Hybels wrote an amazing book, called Holy Discontent where he speaks about an area where you experience anger and frustration with the world (For example,  Jesus’s anger when he saw the money-lenders gambling inside the temple of His Father and he made the rope and whipped them out. Matthew 21:12-13) and how that could point you to your true purpose. Together with the deep intimate relationship with God, this holy anger can be changed into a positive force that impacts and changes the course of the world. Just think of people like Mother Theresa, Billy Graham and Bono.

Holy Discontent as a Starting Place

Let’s for a moment forget about those high-profile names. Think about a young lady who grows up in a broken home, and her hearts breaks for kids who grow up in an unhappy home. She decides to become a primary school teacher, so she can impact the lives of kids who grow up in this dysfunction. One of the reasons Bill Hybels is the pastor of a huge church in America today (Willow Creek Church) is due to the holy discontent he experienced as a kid. His family attended a church that was run very badly, and it was then that the stirrings of his holy discontent started.

Related Post: Our potential is God’s gift to us; what we do with that potential is our gift to God.

I understand that not all of us are able to quit our jobs and go volunteer our time for a free but worthy cause. However, we can volunteer in our free time, over weekends. Also, showing love to another usually can take you a minute. This can include sending a message to a hurting friend or making a dish for some struggling friends…whatever you can do, with whatever you have, is a start. As you continue being faithful in the little bit, Jesus will multiply it and give you more. He won’t give you more than you can handle. First and foremost, our main priority is to spend time receiving His love, daily, renewing our minds, in the word.

So, I leave you with a few questions:

1. What is the one thing that gets you fired up and causes a firestorm of frustration to build up within you?
2. Are you willing to let God help you in those areas, and lead and guide you by His peace?
3. Practically, how does this look for your life?

My prayer is that you would not just conform, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind, daily. (Romans 12:2) Remember that His love and grace empowers you and sets you free to be the best version of yourself. I love how the Passion translation of the Bible puts it:

"We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!” (Ephesians 2:10 TPT)