The Purpose of Life Is Preparation
PRESSURE
is an inordinate device doing many things. It forces us to respond, it
creates impetus to adjust and grow, it teaches us what to avoid in
future, and it can bring us to a place of utter surrender. There are
many pressures that work for God's purposes in our lives that we have
no idea about. Let's look at pressure as the catalyst for growth and
performance through the purifying glory of preparation.
Every
hurt, betrayal, disappointment, frustration, denial, rejection, and
lie is pressure intended to compel us to prepare. To respond best is to
reflect over what happened, take the pain within ourselves, with God
resident, and absorb the pressure in the pain - a meditative activity.
We
finish with this prayer: "Lord, make me better. Use this for my
learning. Help me to learn what I need to learn. Help me convert the
darkness I'm feeling into light for benefit. Compel me to not look at
what the other party should do. Make this grief I feel part of my
preparation for the greater thing coming. Help me to one day be able to
thank you for this pain I now feel."
What
we then carry about with us is the purpose that will ever drive our
lives in an inspiring direction: God is active, right here, right now,
in preparing us for the greater thing. We don't need to know what the
greater thing coming is. Indeed, it can only harm us to know. But we
trust his purposes in grooming us upon our purpose.
When
we are focused on our purpose - to hone in on our preparation - we are
able to more fully accept our lives, as they are, in all humility.
God's not finished yet.
Denzel
Washington once said, "Luck is where opportunity meets preparation."
In other words, there is no such thing as luck. But, in being diligent
around preparation, in waiting patiently for the appropriate time, a
person creates something out of the opportunity they are inevitably
presented.
Opportunity
is inevitable. Our role in the waiting is one of preparation. All good
thing have their time. To each good thing is appointed a season.
***
Three reminders that God's got this:
1. He's not finished with us.
2. He's not finished with them.
3. He's not finished with the situation.
God
is preparing us all. If we will relax from our ambitious zest a little
in life and focus simply on what God is doing, we'll be amazed at the
peace and joy that will flood in by the agency of the Holy Spirit.
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