Virtuous Daughters

What Is A Life-Purpose?

When I first began my searching, I didn’t really even understand what a life-purpose was, so let me explain a little about what it is in case some of you also don’t understand. First of all, it is not an action. A life purpose is the reason, or motive, behind the actions we do and the decisions we make in life. For example, your life-purpose and the career you embark on are two different things. Your career is the way you can live out your life purpose, but it is your life purpose that should determine, for example, what career or path you take.

A couple of questions you can ask yourself when trying to understand your life-purpose, is #1) would I be able to still live for this (or accomplish this) if I got into a car accident and became paralyzed, or if I got a debilitating disease (in other words, is this truly a life purpose, or is this an action that I am confusing as my life-purpose)? And #2) at the end of my life, when I look back over everything I’ve done, what is the one thing I want to be able to say Yahweh accomplished  through my life? (For example, “Yahweh used my life to ___”).

Now, let me share with you something else that will help you when trying to determine your own personal life purpose. What is the greatest command in Yahweh’s word? To love Him, right? What is the second greatest command? To love others (the real wording is our “neighbor”), right? So what does this mean in terms of your life purpose? Your life purpose should first of all be based on Yahweh and your love for Him, and, second of all, it should be based on your love for others. Living for dogs, horses, computers, wealth, or fame, first of all are not worth living for, and second of all, are misplaced priorities. For example, living for the sole purpose of training dogs, reflects a love for dogs that is greater than your love for their owners, just like living for fame (i.e. prestige, honor, having people look up to you, etc) reflects a love for yourself that is greater than your love for those around you. Following is an example of this in practice and the results of both . . .

Let’s say that there are two people who become medical doctors. The life-purpose of one is to get rich. The life-purpose of the other is to share Yahweh’s great love. Both practice medicine, but one does it to gain money, and the other uses it as an opportunity to minister to people, and share Yahweh’s love with them. When someone comes in with a medical ailment, the one living to get rich will make the decision that will make him the richest, whereas the one living to minister to the people will make the decision that is best for that person, regardless of how much money they will or will not get because of it. Do you see how our purpose for doing what we do plays a large part in how we do it? The career for both of these people was the same, yet the outcome was very different because their purposes were very different.

Now, let’s look at these two people farther down the road of life . . . the rich man will begin to ask, “What good is my life? I have all this money, but what good is it?” and will begin to realize that his life doesn’t have any meaning. Millionaires have one of the highest suicide rates, because although they have as much money as they could ever want, they have nothing else (money can’t buy love for example). The other, who has a purpose greater than himself, will have just as much meaning and purpose twenty years down the line as he does the very first day he graduated (now this is not to say he will never get discouraged, or that life will always be easy, but it will have meaning and purpose). What is the difference? One had a purpose worth living for, and the other didn’t. As the ‘Life Purpose Planning Workbook’ said, no purpose is worth living for that does not include others, and I would like to include that no purpose is worth living for that does not have as it’s center Yahweh (just ask the world).

When the only “purpose” to my life was preparing for marriage my life constantly felt empty and meaningless. Now, don’t get me wrong, marriage is a wonderful thing, and I still would love to get married some day. But, when that was all I was living for, my life meant nothing as long as I was still single. Now I have a purpose that I can live for whether I am married or single, “able” or crippled, in the US or in a foreign country, bound or free, etc. My purpose in life (in the “short-form”) is to be a bright, actively shining light for Yahweh, always pointing people to Him – wherever I am, whatever circumstances I find myself in, whether I am married or single, at home or out shopping, etc. It is not to get married, or to graduate with honors from a great college, or to be high up on the totem pole in some big company. My purpose in life is to be a bright, actively shining light to those around me.

Knowing for what purpose Yahweh created us helps us to know what He wants us to do with our lives. There are many more opportunities for ministry, careers, etc. in this world then all of us combined could probably think of, and trying to know which one is Yahweh’s will for your life can be completely overwhelming. But knowing what your purpose in life is, helps narrow things down a bit, and give you a  “ruler” against which you can measure everything else up against – from small, every day decisions like whether or not you should wear a certain piece of clothing, or go to a certain place, or listen to certain music,  to big decisions like whether or not you should get a career, or get involved with some sort of ministry, or go to college, and, if either of these, which one, etc.

Following is my complete life-purpose statement:

Most of all, my purpose in life is to love Yahweh with every part of me, and to be completely surrendered to His will in all things, trusting Him to lead me where I need to be, and to open the doors that need to be opened, and close the doors that should closed.

My life-purpose is to be a bright, actively shining light to the world, going out of my way to shine Yahweh’s love in the hearts and lives of those around me. In a world where so many claim to be Yahweh’s children and yet live, act, and talk no different than the world, I believe Yahweh wants me to really make sure I set a Godly example for other believers, and give the world a true picture of what Yahweh is like. Because of this, I believe Yahweh wants me to meet the needs of those around me (wherever I am), whether those needs are physical(Matt 10:40-42, 25:34-40), or whether those needs are things like a sunny smile, a word of encouragement or praise, a listening ear, etc. Although I am to be a brightly shining light wherever I am (at all times), I believe I need to actively be shining Yahweh’s light in the hearts and lives of the people around me (in other words, those in my town/community). I believe that Yahweh does not want me to “hide my light under a bushel”, but wants me to be actively stepping out and letting my light shine in the hearts and lives of others.

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Now everyone’s life-purposes are different, as we are all different parts of the body, so yours may very well be completely different than mine, and that is fine. I did not share my life-purpose statement with you as a blue-print of what yours is supposed to be, but rather as an example of how I wrote mine, so you can hopefully glean some ideas for when you write your own.

I pray that this helped you to understand both the importance of defining your life purpose, and also how to go about it. If you are like me, you have probably seen someone who was super confident in their life – they knew where they were going, how they were going to get there, why, etc – and if you have ever wondered if you were asleep when Yahweh handed out life purposes (LOL), I hope this was a help and encouragement.

In the Messiah,

Sharon

“Where there is no vision, the people perish. . .” Proverbs 29:18