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DEVOTION//Life’s Purpose

DEVOTION//Life’s Purpose

Blog, Devotions

Josh McDowell tells about a businessman he knows who hires top corporate executives for other firms. The man told McDowell about an executive he would never forget.

What is your purpose

"When I get an executive that I'm trying to hire for someone else, I like to disarm him,” the businessman said. “I offer him a drink, take my coat off, then my vest, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, whatever, until he's all relaxed. Then, when I think I've got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square in the eye and say, ‘What's your purpose in life?’ It's amazing how top executives fall apart at that question.”

One day that businessman’s approach didn’t work. "I was interviewing this fellow the other day, had him all disarmed, with my feet up on his desk, talking about football. Then I leaned up and said, 'What's your purpose in life, Bob?' And he said, without blinking an eye, 'To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.'”

The businessman added, “For the first time in my career I was speechless."

A question

I have a question for you. Have you defined your purpose in life?

There are many ways to define your purpose. They all begin with what God has done for us: his grace in Jesus that forgives us, adopts us, pledges his presence in our lives. Then they describe how his grace prompts us to respond.

Examples

Here are some examples from Scripture:

  • Ephesians 2:8-10, We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

  • Philippians 3:10,11, I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

  • Colossians 1:28, He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

  • 1 Peter 2:9, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

 Define your purpose in life. Then go make someone speechless.