The cool thing about Jesus is that He gives purpose and He is purpose. What I mean by that is that we were first and foremost created to worship Him. We are His beloved, and we honor and respect Him by giving Him our affections. In that way, He alone is our purpose.
By making Him our purpose, and recognizing what we were born for, we are then transformed in order to have purpose. As we worship Him, we feel His heart. And when we feel His heart, we begin to understand what He wants us to do on earth. We don't find purpose in order to win points in heaven. There is nothing we can do that will pay for our sins. That is done through Jesus Christ. But we find purpose by understanding love and compassion and mercy, and giving in that way, the same way God has given to us.
Therefore, Christian purpose isn't born out of piety, but rather out of gratitude. We give to the poor at Christmas not because it's the thing to do, but because we understand how much God cares for the poor and how rich love and generosity are through Jesus.
Purposefully engaging in what matters to God is in itself worship. Allow this season to be purposed in Jesus and see what opens up in front of you and what God's heart reveals.
Rene, thanks for the reminder that if our purpose in life is not built on the foundation of Christ's purposes and His desires for what we do with our lives, then we're missing the mark. God seems to be continually bringing me back to this very important truth: my gifts of ministry and writing are to be first and foremost for Him. Just this morning He led me to a couple of verses that I believe speak clearly to what you have shared. "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than man, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve." Colossians 3:23-24
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