Saved For A Purpose

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. (Luke 4:16-20)

Jesus fully understood His purpose. Above, Luke records Jesus reading from the scroll of Isaiah. The passage He read outlined the mission of the Messiah; Jesus is the Messiah of whom Isaiah prophesied.

Jesus came to do the will of the Father. Jesus’ purpose superseded everything else. All He did enhanced and feed into that purpose. If it didn’t help Him fulfill His purpose, then He did not waste His time with it. For example, He often escaped the crowds who wanted to crown Him as king and after performing healing miracles He told the peopled healed not to reveal who healed them; He did not cater to the whims of the fickle crowd even when it worked to His advantage to please the people. He intended to obey God and not man. Jesus came to die and be raised again; He had a date with destiny so-to-speak and He intended to keep that date!

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you were saved for a purpose. Are you living a purposeful life? Henry Blackaby wrote:

You cannot stay where you are and go with God. You cannot continue doing things your way and accomplish God’s purpose in His ways. Your thinking cannot come close to God’s thoughts. For you to do the will of God, you must adjust your life to Him, His purpose,and His ways.

It is the height of arrogance and nearly blasphemy for a person to come to Christ and look deeply into his life and study His heart and walk away saying “I’m close enough; I do not need top grow in Christlikeness.” To worship Jesus calls for a decision. Everyone who reads this devotion is making a decision. We are humbly moving toward Jesus or we are defiantly moving away.

Our father has a wonderful plan for your life. The question is, Are you actively pursuing God’s will or are you just sort of meandering along? Several years ago I wrote out my life purpose statement. I did this to clarify my thinking and to make sure I stayed on course. Here is what I wrote:

My life purpose statement: My greatest desire is to glorify God by loving Him completely, being a Godly father and husband, and living an authentic life so others may come to know Jesus Christ. My life verses: John 3:16 and Galatians 2:20.

Pray and write out your life purpose statement. Put it where you can see it and be daily reminded of why God saved you from an meaningless existence!