What is Your Purpose?

Have you ever asked yourself that question?   Why are you on this earth?  What purpose does God have for your life?   For this year?  For this month?  For today?

The answer is always the same.

To hear the voice of God and do His will whatever it is.

There is a notion preached by some that when we are in the “center of God’s perfect will” things are all perfect.  There are no challenges, and everything is falling together.   When God is showing us daily that He is at work and the pieces are fitting together nicely, THAT’S when we know we are doing what He has called us to do.

Ha.

Scripture tells us in Philippians 3 that if we are to know Christ that we not only share in the power of his resurrection, but also in his suffering.  When Jesus was fulfilling God’s purpose for him, when He was in the CENTER of God’s will for Him, he was on a cross.

The times in my life where I have strongly felt that I was in my current role, position, or place “for such a time as this” have not been the easy times.  But the knowledge that I am where I am because I am supposed to be here — that God has given me the gifts, strengths and talents I need to face the challenges right before me — is a priceless feeling.

It reminds me of a song that was written while some of your were in grade school, but it is a powerful one.  Now that you know that you can’t skip it just because of it’s age.

I encourage you to listen to this song, to apply it to your life, and to realize that you are here… and you are HIS …. for such a time as this.

For Such a Time As This

Fighting the Enemy with the Sword of the Spirit

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. 

The first 30 years of my life I spent a lot of time memorizing Scripture.  I remember my dad paying me a quarter to learn the books of the Bible in order when I was six.... and other incentives in Sunday School, church, VBS, youth retreats and camps, college classes, etc... that helped me to learn a LOT of Scripture.  I coached Bible bowl and learned a LOT of Romans, Acts, and John.  I dated a guy in my late twenties and he and I memorized the entire book of Philippians and were working on James.  It's been a while since I put forth concentrated effort to learn Scripture, but you know what?  A lot of it is still in there.

If you look through the armor described in the passage back, it's all defense.... It's all protective, except of the sword!  That's what we fight back with -- and the sword is God's word.

So, without looking up it up for accuracy, I will tell you what happens in my brain often.  You will be able to tell how old I was based on the version I memorized things in.   Now this is NOT to make me seem smart or more spiritual -- it's just evidence that if we hide God's word in our hearts, we will not sin... and that God's word is lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.  (I think that's Psalms 119).

If I find myself tempted to do something i know is wrong, the verse I memorized when I was 14 and living in Potomac, Illinois comes to mind, "There hath no temptation taken thee, but such as is common to man.  And God will not allow ye to be tempted above which ye are able, but will with the temptation, provide a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it."  (I Corinthians 10:13).

If I am getting really tired and discouraged, "Do not become weary in well doing because you will reap a harvest if you do not give up."  (I think that's Galatians 6:9).

If I feel like I am dealing with a time of suffering Romans 5 pops in.  "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.  And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his holy spirit into our hearts."

If I want to smack someone upside the head to pay them back for something they have done to me, Romans 12..... "Do not repay evil for evil.... it is mine to avenge says the Lord."

If I am in the middle of an argument or fight with someone I love, I Corinthians 13:  Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not boast.  It is not self seeking.  It keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails."

If I am worrying:  "Do not worry about anything, instead, pray about everything.  Tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for his answers.   If you do this you will experience God's piece -- which is far more wonderful than the human mind can comprehend.  His peace will keep you quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus."  (Living Bible, I think I Thessalonians maybe??  Maybe Ephesians something.

If I am praying for a miracle, "Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think...."

And I could go on and on and on.

But this is how it works.  God's word helps us fight back.   And if we have it stored in our head, it's like always packing a gun.  When the enemy shows up, we can blast him.

I think I'm going to start memorizing again.....

Fighting the Enemy with Our Salvation

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. 

A helmet is a pretty important part of any soldiers armor.  Protecting our heads, metaphorically, means protecting our minds -- our thoughts, which govern our feelings, our thoughts that can keep us awake at night and have us churning with anxiety, our thoughts that help us figure out life.  So the last thing we want is for the enemy to attack our minds.

And yet he does.  Every day.  Slow and subtle he creeps in and eventually we find that he has settled in.  Negativity, hopelessness, despondency, judgmental and critical thoughts of others, thoughts of revenge or harm.  The list of his potential detractors from a hope filled life are endless.  And he enters through our mind.

Paul tells us that the one thing that can protect us from the enemy's invasion of our thoughts is salvation.  It is God's ultimate win.   Sending His son to die for us, once and for all and then rising from the dead defeated the enemy forever.

Remembering our salvation and reminding the enemy that God has already been victorious has the power to transform our thinking.   Today you might find yourself going to a dark place in your mind.  If you do just remember your salvation -- and that God is undefeated.  It is in this hope that we can transform our minds and conquer negative thinking.

Fighting the Enemy with the Shield of Faith

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. 

What is faith?   Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (Hebrews 11:1)

My husband and I have a constant debate.   I tell him that I believe things are going to get better, and he says, "Show me the data!"   I finally have gotten to the point that I have memorized Romans 8:24 so I can say it back to him:  "Hope that is seen is no hope at all!  Who hopes for what he already has?"   And then I remind him that hope has no data.

Being able to look beyond our current situation and have confidence that God is in control is one of the primary ways to not only fight Satan but to extinguish his darts.      I'd like to highlight three progressive darts that the enemy sends our way.

1)  Darts of Doubt.   Faith is definitely a shield against the times when the enemy wants to convince us that we can't do something.  We aren't good enough.  Maybe we shouldn't have said yes to this next big thing.   Doubting ourselves, doubting Him, doubting others.   Faith is the only thing that can shield us form the darts of doubt.

2)  Darts of Discouragement.  Once we have begun to doubt, we are plagued with discouragement.  These darts say, "Nothing is ever going to get better.  You've got yourself in a real mess you know.   What were you thinking?  The days ahead will certainly be bad ones."  But if we stand and hold that shield of faith, the darts won't be able to destroy us.

3)  Darts of Despair.   Despair is a step further than discouragement.  It is when we start to believe that we are done fighting.  We don't want to move on,.  We would rather give up.  But that substance of things hoped for.... the evidence of things not seen -- faith... keeps us going.  

I find it interesting that the shield is the one piece of armor that we can move.  Ever have a day when you felt like the darts of the enemy were coming from every angle?  That's why that shield of faith can move....

So if you are feeling doubt.... discouragement... or despair remind yourself that we have a shield and that shield is our faith.  Hold tightly to it and extinguish those darts!

Fighting the Enemy with Peace

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. 

If you have been reading my blogs lately or if you know me in person and have talked to me, you already know that I am looking everywhere to find ways to get people to seek peace and pursue it.  (Ps 34:14).  As I have written previously, one of the greatest tactics of the enemy is to cause division among us and keep conflict in an uproar no matter what.  Once I am sucked into contentious relationships, my focus on my mission is buried so deep I can't even remember what it is.

So it makes much sense that the gospel of peace be our shoes, because we have to take it wherever we go.  It is our responsibility, as much as it depends on us, to leave at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18).  For this reason I encourage you to live as though the ball is always in your court.  

How many of us live a life that is similar to a tennis match?   I ask you out for lunch.  We have a great time.   The ball has now been hit into your court and I wait and wait and wait for you to ask me to lunch.   But I want to have lunch again.. so what can I do?

I'll tell you what I do.... I ask a person to lunch two times in a row.  Or three sometimes.  I trust people to say no if they don't want to do it, but some people just don't initiate things and if I didn't, nothing would happen.

That's a simple example, but in other areas we think the same way.   We are in a conflict.  I go to you and explain my side and then think to myself, "OK, the ball is in your court."  And I wait and I wait and I wait for you to come back to me and apologize or share your side.   But I want to resolve the conflict, so what can I do?

I'll tell you what I do..... I keep going back to the person and trying again.   Sometimes I take breaks in between to restore my emotional energy, but I head back to try to resolve things.   I'm no hero, but I try to live as though the ball is always in my court.  

So in the midst of a dysfunctional system, after there has been mistrust and triangulation as the norm, this principle definitely applies.  If you don't trust me, the ball is in my court.  It's time for me to go to you and ask you what the issue is.  If I don't trust you, the ball is in my court.  It's time for me to go to you and ask what the issue is.  If I have heard that you don't like me, or if I don't like you, the ball is in my court.  If someone told me something about you that may or may not be true, the ball is in my court.  If I know someone has told you something about me that isn't true, the ball is in my court.  

Waiting for someone else to take the initiative to resolve a past hurt may never result in healing and it it is a waste of time.  Because only when these things are cleared up do we have the emotional energy to do beat the system.

If we stop viewing relationships as a tennis game, we are on our way to beating the dysfunctional system.

Fighting the Enemy with Righteousness

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. 

When putting GOd's armor on to fight the enemy, I think it's important to notice how Paul pairs the various traits with the armor.   It seems to me that Paul is indicating that if we don't have righteousness as a breastplate, we're going to straight up die.  The arrow or sword or bullet will come straight to the heart and we will be done.

Sometimes when we look at theological terms we can become convinced that the words are much more complex or esoteric than they really are.  Righteousness is one of those words.

The definition of righteousness according to Google, Siri, and Merriam Webster, righteousness is acting in accord with divine or moral law, free from guilt or sin.  Why is righteousness then, what is protecting our heart?  Because sin and moral failure is what will open us up for the deadly blow.

You've seen it happen countless times with celebrities, pastors, politicians, athletes... a moral flaw can ruin everything for them.   A very gifted preacher embezzles money.  A politician has an affair.  A celebrity gets arrested.  And suddenly things go downhill.   The thing is, it's the same thing for us "normal" people .... it's just that it doesn't happen in the limelight.

So what actually does sin do?

First, it distracts us from our purpose.  Whether it is a big sin, like the ones mentioned above, or a "little sin" (in God's eyes they are all the same, but we have created our own continuum) it is still detecting us from God's purpose for us.  And when that happens, the enemy gains territory.

Sin also affects our relationships with other people.  More of the ten commandments have to do with how we treat each other than our direct relationship with God.  And when our relationships get screwed up, then we get less effective.  If I am spending my time thinking about how angry I am with my sister, or jealous that my best friend has a new friend, or telling everyone I know how much my mother is annoying me, I am doing very little to change the world.

Finally, sin separates us from God.  And I don't know about you, but I'm not at all interested in fighting the enemy without Him.

God's not interested in having us be defeated.  He is there to help us to avoid the temptation to sin.  And if our focus is on Him we can avoid the pitfalls above.

I'm thinking if I go into battle, I want my heart protected.   Righteousness is what will do that.   Might be something we should pursue.

Those Stories in My Head

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Yesterday I finished reading the book "Crucial Conversations."  There is a lot of good stuff in the book, but one concept is significant enough that I feel it is worth sharing with you.  Not recognizing this has messed up a bunch of my relationships in the past and probably has hurt my parenting.   it's the concept of Stories.

I first heard about this when Brené Brown spoke at the leadership summit this past summer, but having listened to so many people over the past few weeks give me a glimpse into the relationships at my new job, the whole idea is making even more sense.

When we observe another person's behavior we develop a story as to why they are acting that way.  For example, one of my kids comes home from school.  I ask him if he has done his chore, and he glares at me and walks into his room, slamming the door hard.

The following is the story that immediately develops in my head.   "Good grief, I am so done with kids being defiant about their stupid chores and then getting so mad at me when I remind them to do them.  I'm also sick of being disrespected and hated at every turn.  He hasn't done his chore more than three times in the last two weeks because I haven't been home to make him do it.  He is way too old to have me have to tell him to do it over and over and over again.   He is just taking advantage of how busy I am and the fact that I'm not paying attention.   I wonder how he can live with himself being so selfish as to ask for more than anyone else and do less."  (OK, OK, so my stories in my head get kinda lengthy.)

The reality is that I am making a whole lot of assumptions.  It could be that the glare and the stomping off to his room could be because something awful happened at school that he doesn't want to talk about.  It doesn't have to be about me.  Or it could be because he got up early that morning and did the chore and someone has messed it up and now he is getting yelled at for something he shouldn't (highly unlikely, but for the sake of making a point.....)

Or maybe he IS angry with me, but it is about something completely different.  Maybe I was supposed to give him cash that morning for an event at school and I forgot and he had to go without lunch.  Maybe it is because he found out that I made plans that didn't include him.  There could be a million different scenarios here.

The problem is that we don't even try to understand the real story before we react.   We make assumptions and don't ask questions.   And then we respond to the person based on a story we have written that might be completely untrue.

I know this happens in marriages and in the workplace and in churches often.   There is a second part that makes this even more damaging.  It's the "That's my story and I'm sticking to it."  Once the story
we have written about another person is in our head, then we interpret everything that person does based on a story that may or may not be true.

If the story we have written is that someone at work is lazy and avoids their work, we notice every time that happens and it confirms our story.   The times we see them diligently concentrating on a task we dismiss it and consider that to be unusual.  If we have written a story that says that someone disrespects us because we are female, every action is perceived as discriminatory.  You get the picture.

Wouldn't it be great if we could erase parts of our brain like you do sections of a hard drive?  Wouldn't it be awesome to have a completely blank story for each person?  Wouldn't it also be helpful if we didn't have others around us trying to write the story about others before we even get to know them?  But that isn't possible so we have to consciously choose to do things differently.

In some of our more difficult relationships, we may just need to do a refresh to our story web page and see if it has changed.  Maybe sharing your version of the story with the other person could be healing.  Something like, "Hey son.  When you come home and don't talk to me and then slam your door, I think it is because you are mad at me about asking you to do your chores.   It makes me feel bad that me asking you to do something simple causes you to be so angry."   The response in those conversations might surprise us.

Think about the relationships in your life.  Think about the ones where there is conflict or the relationship is strained.  Ask yourself what story you have in your head about that person and tell them the story, asking them if they see things the same way.   Whether your story was mostly wrong or mostly right, the result of the conversation would probably be surprising -- and beneficial -- to both of you.

Because after all, if I respect you, I should at least allow you to participate when I write the story of you in my head.