Who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? What was I born to do? What Can I do? Where do I Fit in? Why am I different? Where am I going? Do I have anything to offer to this world?

At some point all of us have probably asked one of these questions? And all of these questions are questions of purpose. What is purpose? Purpose is the reason for which we were born. All of us have a reason that God has placed us here on the earth, and I just like you, I am on a journey of discovering my purpose. 

One thing I have learned about purpose is that purpose is a journey, it’s not something that you just wake up one day and know what you are immediately called to do. Now for some of us it is that way! We knew what we wanted to do from day one, and we worked hard and we did it and we are happy and fully functioning in our Purpose.And that is awesome, I wish it was that way for me!  But for some of us including me, it’s something that we grow into everyday. The more we live life, the more we will discover what we are passionate about and the more we will discover our purpose. I am very passionate about this topic because as I write to you today I am still uncovering my purpose and what God has called me to do. The thing about purpose for me is that I have many interests, many gifts and talents that God has blessed me with and I’m trying to figure out how all of that can tie in together for the bigger picture of purpose. If any of you are like me, let’s journey together with God and figure out how He will put it all together.

One thing that I have learned from reading Dr. Myles Munroe’s book “ In Pursuit of Purpose” is that our purpose is birthed out of the natural skills and talents with which we were born. So the big question for today is? What are you good at? What are you passionate about? What can you talk about to anyone passionately for hours and hours at a time? Sometimes we think that our purpose has to be some large scale grand thing, like finding the cure for cancer, or creating time travel. But sometimes our purpose is something like being an expert organizer, being a high school math teacher, being a pilot, being a guitar player, or being a secretary. Now yeah there are a lot of organizers,math teachers, pilots, guitar player, secretaries, etc in the world but NO ONE IS LIKE YOU and no one will ever be able to do it like you, you have your own unique qualities and spin on things that will make people love the way you do it over someone else. There are distinctions that God has created in you that he has not made in anyone else and that will be the thing that sets you apart from everyone else as it pertains to your purpose.

Now sometimes we can find something that we are passionate about and become discouraged because we see someone else out there doing the same thing that we want to do,AND they are doing it better than us. But I want to encourage you today to stop comparing yourself to others! One thing that hinders purpose is comparison. Stop comparing yourself, your gifts and your passions to other people. This is not gonna help you move any closer to your purpose, so stop. Don’t be discouraged, if God has called you to it, then everything you need will be provided for you to accomplish your purpose. So don’t go around looking at everyone else in their Purpose and saying “hey that seems easy let me just start doing that.” When you know that’s not your purpose.Walk in your purpose not other peoples. Listen when people are walking in their purpose they make that task look so easy, because God created them to do it. And when we go around trying to do everything but our purpose, it won’t come as easy to us and the provision will not be there. 

God has guaranteed provision for us when we are obeying Him and doing what He has called us to. He never guaranteed provision for us when we do what we want to do. 

For example, say you went to an investor and said “ Hey I want to start a t-shirt printing company,” and the investor is like “Yeah that sounds great, I’ll give you the money. Come back in 1hr.” When you walk out you see your neighbor’s successful car lot and you’re like,  “That seems cool I’m gonna start a car lot.” So you go to the investor and tell them “I want to start a car lot instead of a t-shirt business.” He then responds, “Sorry I’m not gonna give you the money. You were supposed to start a t-shirt company and not a car lot. We already have too many car lots in town. But I am still willing to give you my investment if you start the t-shirt company.” But you are so stuck on the success of your neighbors car lot that you decline. You walk away disappointed with no investment.  I said all that to say stop comparing yourself to others and be who God has called you to be. When you are doing what you are called to do God will bless you with the money, favor, and resources to do it.

As it pertains to our purpose we need to get our emotions and our egos in check. We need to stop running around being envious and jealous of everyone else walking in their giftings and focus on ourselves and what God has called us to be. In society at large I feel that we spend way too much time looking at everyone else, and what they have accomplished. Look, I’m guilty of that. Seeing people my age and I’m all sad because I don’t have what they have. Let me help you out real quick, forget everyone else and focus on what God has called you to. Period! Because truth be told we look at all these peoples lives through the instagram filter and it’s not real! Things are not always as they appear!

So focus on you! I’m poppin’ out that big question to y’all again. What are you good at? What do you love to do? Focus on that one thing, if it’s a lot of different things, focus on that one, that you love more than the others and then start honing your craft, start learning more and more about it. Take classes, read books, learn from others that are willing to teach you! So for example, if you feel that God has called you to be a writer, start writing everyday, start taking classes on writing, learn about different types of writing, learn about storytelling. Do what it takes to get there. Continue to daily grow that skill. And when the time comes for your purpose to be realized you will be ready. Myles Munroe said in his book “You must pursue purpose deliberately and consistently” if you want to reach your purpose YOU CANNOT BE LAZY, and act like everything is just gonna fall into your lap. You are gonna have to put in some work. It can’t just be some dream, write it down and work towards it.
I heard this story about a man who said that God called him to be a movie director, and he was asked by someone else, “What movies have you directed so far? The man replied, “Nothing. I’m just waiting for God to send me the money and then I’ll get started.” If God has given you that “big idea” cool, but while you are waiting, you need to be doing something. What would have happened if one day this guy got the money. And he had no clue what to do, because he chose to wait for the perfect moment instead of preparing by learning and doing smaller movies. He would have got to that big moment and messed everything up, because he was not ready and prepared. You must Prepare for your purpose. Be ready, get ready!