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Life is Not Easy, But God Uses Everything
There have been times in my life that I have struggled with my own identity. I have felt the pressure that I must have a title or assignment to feel significant. There were times in my younger years where I struggled with not living in a metropolitan region of America. I felt reduced. I felt insignificant. I felt like others did not recognize the value of where I served.
At times, this created a discontentment that was unhealthy. While the struggle was real, it became apparent that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks relating to these kinds of things. What matters is that you know and live out God’s purpose for your life. When you choose to live out God’s purpose for your life, while titles and assignments and opportunities are nice, you will find joy and happiness regardless of the specifics, because you are living purposefully.
Finding Purpose
Recently, we conducted a professional survey with our entire church. One of the many questions we asked our congregation that day was the following: What topic would be of most interest to you during a Sunday sermon? We received responses from several thousand people. Other than teaching through books of the Bible, as I have done regularly through the years, there were two topics people asked us to address: finding purpose and marriage.
You cannot live fit spiritually if you do not live purposefully. Without purpose, people live aimlessly. I have become convinced the need to live with purpose is greater than the survey may have revealed. People want to know their life matters.
Yes, God is at work in your life. Did you know that Romans 8:28 informs us that in each and every part of your life, God is at work? These things work together or cooperate to produce a greater effect than they could individually. God works through all things in concert together.
God is always orchestrating everything in your life to work together for your benefit. He sets His heart toward all of us who love Him intimately and pursue Him passionately. God’s intention and will is always good and always best for you.
I have to stop and qualify this, because it is very important for us to understand. Everything that happens to you is not good, but God uses everything for your ultimate good.
God’s Purpose for You
Regardless of who you are, where you are, or what you do in your life, if you are a Christian, God is always moving you to His eternal high purpose: Making you more like Jesus Christ. He created you to live your life with God’s purpose always on your mind, becoming like Jesus Christ.
The only way you will ever feel fulfilled is to know that God is always sovereignly and lovingly using everything in your life to make you more like Jesus Christ, for His glory.
Whoever you are and whatever your current circumstances, pursue God’s purpose for your life. Through every season of your life, from good to bad to mediocre, pursue God’s purpose. Now and in the future, pursue God’s purpose with a great expectation that God is working in your life, believe Him for your future with hope.
Life is not easy; it is full of challenges and even some losses. Job deeply believed what we need to believe: I believe nothing can hinder God’s purpose for my life! He trusted this because he knew God could do anything. Do you? While some people may experience a level of restoration as Job did, others may live to the end faithfully yet lose their lives as mentioned in Hebrews 11. For both groups, the ultimate promise is that God’s eternal purposes will come to fruition. The way you view God will determine how you view everything else in your life, including your problems, challenges, and even losses.
Please understand this clearly—what God wants to do, He will do. God is unstoppable! Therefore, each of us should declare this personally: I believe nothing can hinder God’s purpose for my life! Yes, God is able! He is unstoppable!
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
President, National Day of Prayer
This article is an adapted excerpt from Living Fit: Make Your Life Count by Pursuing a Healthy You by Ronnie W. Floyd.
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Watch Over Your Life
Watch what is going on around you. Watch what is going on in you. Watch what all the gauges are telling you about your life.
In the Scripture, we are instructed to watch over our life and all God gives to us.1 Our future way in life and even the preservation of our life can depend on our intentionality, discipline, and watchfulness.
The Bible calls upon the watchman to watch over the city at night while others sleep.2 The Bible also calls upon spiritual watchmen to watch over the people of God in prayer continually.3 It also calls each person to watch out for people around them.4 We are even told to watch for the Lord’s soon return.5
There is another way we see this word watch used in the Scripture, depending on the translation. We are called upon to watch over our own life, to avoid evil, and to protect our life. Proverbs 16:17 says, “The highway of the upright avoids evil; the one who guards his way protects his life.” If you will keep your life going on the right highway, you will avoid evil or any detour from the road that God wants you to travel. Then the Scripture says that as you guard or watch over your own life effectively, you will protect or keep your life from trouble in the future.
The word translated here as guard is the Hebrew word nat sar, meaning to guard, watch over, or keep watch over your life so you can observe it properly, and save your life.6
I find it interesting how various translations and paraphrases communicate the heart of the verse. Notice these examples from Proverbs 16:17.
- “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul.” (nkjv)
- “The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; whoever guards his way preserves his life.” (esv)
- “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.” (kjv)
- “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who watches his way preserves his life.” (nasb)
- “The path of the godly leads away from evil; he who follows that path is safe.” (tlb)
- “The road of right living bypasses evil; watch your step and save your life.” (The Message)
Each of these offers a nuanced perspective, but the translations and interpretations are consistent. They all relate to guarding, watching, or keeping. We are called to carefully watch over our lives.
What is going on around you will, many times, bring out what is really in you. This can be quite revealing. When the wheels of your life start to fall off, your emotional gauge begins to reflect it.
Two Actions to Take to Watch over Your Life
Here are two actions to take to watch over your life effectively:
Action 1: Watch your gauges consistently.
Recognize, read, monitor, and act upon what each of the five gauges of your life are registering. Measure consistently to see whether you are living fit spiritually, physically, relationally, financially, and emotionally.
Action 2: Watch your steps daily.
What you do each moment, every day, in these five areas of your life will determine your overall level of fitness. Connectedness exists between each of these areas. It is essential to keep watch over not just each one, but all of them together, because this will determine how healthy you really are. The only antidote to this is to watch your steps daily.
Therefore, a key to living fit is to live watchfully.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
President, National Day of Prayer
- Genesis 2:15; Joshua 23:11.
- Isaiah 62:6.
- Isaiah 62:7.
- Hebrews 10:24.
- Matthew 24:42–44.
- W. E. Vines, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words
This article is an adapted excerpt from Living Fit: Make Your Life Count by Pursuing a Healthy You by Ronnie W. Floyd.
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, President of the National Day of Prayer, and founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry.
To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd
contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.
Visit our website at http://ronniefloyd.com
Follow Dr. Floyd on Twitter and Instagram @ronniefloyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.