Grateful for Purpose
Let me share another “P” for which I am grateful in 2023. It’s the purpose that God brought into my life.
Many of you have read Rick Warren’s book The Purpose-Driven Life. We read it as a small group when I was at eMseni in 2018, and we found it to be a huge blessing. We learned that God is the one who creates us for a purpose – to make Him known! And we can all use our talents and experiences to do this.
Looking back on 2023, I am grateful that I had a purpose. I had a calling to live out, a people to care for, and things to do for God in the community in which I live.
Trusting God's Purpose: Gratitude in Life's Plans
I didn’t always live it out perfectly, that’s for sure. But the interesting thing is that God’s purposes still prevailed in spite of what I was or wasn’t doing. We read in Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails.”
God has a way of still accomplishing His purposes, no matter how I plan my life out. I’m grateful that I can trust in Him to fulfill His plans through it all.
Did you live “on purpose” this year? Did you give your all to try and accomplish good things? Maybe you achieved some of them, maybe you fell short in others, but here’s the thing: God made you for a purpose, and your life in 2023 was an attempt to fulfill that. That’s something to be grateful for.
And hear me friends: even if you are no longer working, and spend most of your time alone, God still has a purpose for you. You may not have the abilities you used to, but God will still use you. One of the hardest situations we saw this year was friends whose little baby died within a year of being born. People everywhere were praying for this child, pleading with God for healing and full health, but he ended up not making it. And yet something amazing happened in that family – through the pain, the light of Christ shone. And through this little boy’s life, God touched the lives of many as they prayed and reached out to the family. By the time of the funeral service the family was saying how incredible it was that God used this little one to touch so many lives. Yes – he had a purpose! God used Him.
Reflecting on God's Work: 2023 and Beyond
I wonder how God used you this year without you even knowing!
Be grateful that God achieved His purposes in you, as you lived out 2023. And begin thinking about how 2024 might be a year of purpose for you, as you seek to honour God in all you do.
William Greathouse is one of the Church of the Nazarene’s most influential leaders. But it was his mother’s simple conversion from a nominal Christian to a committed one, that began his journey.