Read | Ephesians 2:8-10
Those who know and follow God’s direction will experience spiritual peace, joy, and contentment. To discover our life’s purpose, the first step—which makes all the other steps possible—is to receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. In other words, we must be saved.
Our part in salvation is to acknowledge we are sinners—to admit to God that we’ve lived in rebellion against Him because we wanted our own way (Rom. 3:23). Professing our belief that Jesus’ death on the cross fully paid our sin debt, we ask God’s forgiveness.
Recognizing Jesus as personal Savior and Lord, we commit our life to Him (Rom. 10:9; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 1:9). Since He is now in charge, our orders and direction will come from Him. Having become part of God’s family, we have His Spirit to help us discover and carry out our Father’s plan.
God’s purpose for His children includes sanctification, stewardship, and service.Sanctification describes continual growth in holiness. The Holy Spirit, with our cooperation, will transform our character to be more like the Lord’s. Stewardship means managing—according to God’s priorities—the time, talents, and treasure He has given us. And service for the kingdom is to mark our life, as it marked the life of Jesus (Matt. 20:28). We serve our Father by obediently ministering to others.
As we each seek the Lord’s specific plan for us, we can be confident that it will include character transformation, investment of our resources for His kingdom, and ministry to others.
