389: Purpose Cross

I am glad that last week is over! I had class every day including Saturday from 8 to 4:30, but I feel smarter already, and I need all the help I can get.  If you read The Memo regularly, you know that I write extensively about bearing fruit.  I don't define fruit as simply being nice or holy (although that is a part), but I define fruit as being productive -- starting the business, writing the book, producing the album and the like.

Yet there is one important aspect of fruitfulness that I have not emphasized and I want to make up for that oversight this week. What is that aspect?  Ah, you know that you will have to read on to find out.

ALONE OR ABUNDANCE?

Jesus said in John 12:24-26:

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

It is crucial that you know your purpose.  If you are going to be as fruitful and fulfilled as you want to be, however, you must die to yourself and follow Him.  There is no way around the death process on the road to purpose and fruit.

MY PURPOSE CROSS

When you die to self and pick up your cross, God will seldom, except for a season, require that you deny who you are or function outside of purpose.  The cross in purpose is not trying to be who you are not, but in fulfilling and expressing your purpose in a manner that honors God and acknowledges the fact that He gave you your purpose, perhaps in a manner that is not your ideal situation.  Let me give you an example.

My purpose is to create order out of chaos. That is what I love to do and it is what the Lord helps me to do.  My death process, however, is that I would rather fulfill my purpose almost anywhere except the local church.  I have prayed, "Lord, send me to ABC, CBS, SAA, RBZ, KFHL, KFC, NBC or any other company with an acronym.  But please don't send me to the church!" 

Yet for 35 years, church work has been my purpose cross. God has seen fit for me to fall into the ground and die in church settings all over the world!  Please don't misunderstand. I am not complaining.  It is an honor to serve God anywhere and I am delighted to be back in a local church setting as I write. Church work is where His strength is made perfect in my weakness. Church work is where I learn to deny myself and then get a chance to do all the things I love to do.  Do you see how God is able to combine the two, my cross and my joy?

When you say, "God, I will do whatever you want me to do," that is the correct thing to say.  Don't expect God to place you, however, in a place where you will not express who He made you to be.  You can expect, however, that He will do it in such a way that you will have to deny yourself, in the midst of purpose joy, to pick up your cross and follow Him. There is no other way for you to bear the fruit that God and you both want to see from a purposeful life.  Have a great week!