We are all looking for that one thing that will fulfill us - our purpose here on Earth. Especially right now with lockdown and the spread of Covid-19, many of us are either stuck on that eternal, never ending cycle of work, in which more is demanded from us than ever before, or we are stuck at home with very few options or reasons to leave the house for five minutes’ peace.
Before all of this happened many of us already felt unfulfilled anyway, like we should be doing something else, but had no idea what that really was. I would like to share a little bit about a few people in the Bible who too were feeling lost until they stepped out in faith and trusted God with their lives. They went on to achieve amazing things that are still talked about to this very day, but before they got to that point they all got it very wrong.
Moses thought the answer was running away from a bad situation. He had found out that his mother was a not the princess as he had always believed and, to make things worse, he ended up taking matters into his own hands and killing an Egyptian slave master. He left Egypt with no plans to ever return. However, God had other ideas and sent Moses back to Egypt to face his adopted relative, the new Pharaoh. On his return, Moses was to ask for God’s people to be set free. The story goes on with God sending ten plagues to add pressure on Pharaoh, but nine times he said no. After the tenth, though, God’s people were set free; however, they did not actually receive their freedom until God used Moses to part the Red Sea and to lead God’s people across to safety on the other side. Moses had to be brave to go back and face his fears of his past. In order to find his purpose in life, Moses had to trust in the calling God had given him.
Joseph thought the answer was being the centre of attention, as he shared with his 11 brothers his amazing dreams of how the stars bowed down to him and how sheaves of wheat worshipped him. His brothers didn’t take too kindly to Joseph’s boasting, so they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. They saw this as an end to their dealings with him. However, they couldn’t have been more wrong! God used Joseph to interpret dreams until, one day, Egypt’s Pharaoh had a distressing dream that none of his advisors could explain. This is when he heard about Joseph and his gifts. Joseph was called before Pharaoh and asked to interpret two dreams. Joseph was a tried and tested interpreter and Pharaoh thought it wise to act upon what he advised. Joseph went on to be the no. 2 guy in Pharaoh's kingdom and his brothers had to come to him during a famine when there was food in Egypt but not at home. God took him from being a prisoner to being the second in command of one of the world’s greatest ever civilizations! But in order to achieve this, Joseph had to be bold and trust in the gifts God had given him!
Abraham thought the answer was having children, especially a son, but his wife, Sarah, was not able to have children (this was in the time before IVF treatment was invented). This caused great sorrow to them both, until Abraham heard God speak to him, promising that he would have many thousands of descendants. After a few years, though, Sarah was still childless, so she suggested that Abraham sleep with her servant, Hagar. He thought that this was a great idea and ended up having a son by her. However, God had meant his promise to be fulfilled through Sarah and came back to tell them so. Abraham thought that God was joking and Sarah laughed at this as well, because they knew that Sarah was not just barren, but also too old by now. However, Abraham then followed God and trusted in his word, until eventually Sarah fell pregnant and gave birth to a son. I’m sure you can imagine what great joy this brought both Abraham and Sarah after believing they would never have their own child. He was called Isaac, their pride and joy, and the ancestor of thousands of descendants for Abraham.
Esther thought that the answer was hiding in the shadows and not being noticed. How wrong was she? She was chosen by King Xerxes of the Medes and Persians to be his beautiful queen. When her uncle heard that there was a plot to kill all the Jews in Xerxes’ empire, he asked Esther to intervene. However, life was good for her and, besides, going to talk to the king without being summoned was punishable by death, unless he granted pardon. Her uncle, though, persuaded her that she had been chosen by God to be Xerxes’ wife for a reason and now was the time that that reason was being played out. He added that she wouldn’t be safe anyway when it was found out that she was a Jewess. Esther went on to find the courage to stand up and to speak out before the King, and became the defender of a nation, saving all of God’s people at that time.
The thing is, none of these people found fulfillment, peace, joy or true happiness until they stepped out of their comfort zone and trusted God with their lives. In order to do this they had to give up the things that made them feel safe, or at least trust in something that felt uncertain. Just like these four very different people, we too are asked by God to be brave and to step out of our comfort zone, trusting in him to find that one thing for which God made us.
But in order to actually achieve that, we need to first begin by finding out who God is, and the Bible explains to us that we can do that through Jesus. He is the one person who, once found, will fill in all those cracks in our lives and hearts and finally provide fulfilling answers to many of our unanswerable questions. We can then truly live the life that we were meant to and finally be at peace.
If you don’t know Jesus, then first you need to decide if you want to give God the opportunity to do all of these things for you. If the answer to that decision is yes, then all you need to do is say a simple prayer to ask Jesus into your life. How do you do this I hear you ask? This can be done by saying the prayer below, or one that is similar.
Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. I’m sorry for going my way instead of your way. Thank you for dying on the cross to forgive my sin. Please come into my heart and make me the person you want me to be. Amen.
You can find more information about this on the Knowing God page or the shorter summary. Alternatively you can send us a message on the Contact us page if you have any questions regarding the topics shared in this post.
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