LIVING A LIFE OF PURPOSE OR LIVING A SUCCESFUL LIFE. 1
Welcome to the 21st century, when most youngsters dream of becoming great movie stars, artists, fashion designers, doctors and others like that, you know na. Some even think it's their God-given destiny to become someone great in this world, I mean to be get in the eyes of the world, instead of in God's eyes. An example is Alberto Del Rio, who thinks it's his destiny to become the world heavy weight champion. SMH for him. When God created you, He did so in His image and likeness as we all know, and also for His pleasures (not the world's) and His perfect will. There are various reasons for different people God created, but all these reasons revolve around one purpose;
>>>>>Exodus 9:16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Till you start living according to God's plan and purpose for your life, you're just existing no matter how wealthy you re. This doesn't mean you won't make it to heaven, you will if you are born-again, but there's no assurance of you getting a reward or glory. It takes some people years to realize their purpose, like in Moses' case, and some not that that long, like in Samuel's case, this was because His mother dedicated him to God even before birth.
>>>>>1 Samuel 1:11 And she vowed a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head."
The scripture above shows how effective parents' decisions and prayers concerning their children's lives can be. Sometimes we might have to go through pain and disappointments to realize our purpose in life. The story of Joseph exemplifies this, how he was sold by his brothers, put in prison twice and later became the Prime minister of Egypt. Let me tell you a little something about me, I know you want to read it, SMH for you. Well, I graduated from Secondary school in 2010, with an excellent result in my WAEC exams, by His grace. I wrote jamb that year, scored above 250, applied for Architecture in O.A.U, sadly, my post-utme score wasn't enough for the course, so I had to wait till the next year. In 2011, I sat for the JAMB exam again, scored above 250, and applied for Elect/ Elect Engineering at F.U.N.A.A.B. I still wasn’t given admission, even though my post-utme score was higher than the cut-off mark or the course, its a long story. I wanted to take A'levels prep class and write the exam, but I later decided not to, thank God I did that. Anyways, I took the jamb exam again this year, scored less than 250, though I was expecting a lot more, applied for Physics at the prestigious University of Ibadan. Thanks to God, I was given admission in August. Those 2 years of waiting at home might have looked like a failure or disappointment to anyone else, but to me, it was a blessing in disguise, 'cos I got closer to God, and I still am.
If I had gotten the admission in 2010/2011, believe me; I don't think I’d be able to write these articles today, I might even have gone farther away from God. In those2 years I started reading my bible consistently, before then, reading my bible for like 20 mins seemed like I was reading it for about 40, and I must confessed it seemed boring sometimes. But now I can read it for about 30 mins to an hour, by His grace, and it's now something I take pleasure in doing. I can also pray for about an hour with ease. I'm not telling you all these things to show-off, but to let you to know that you can do it too, even better. (php 4:13). Enough said about me for now. Talking about exams, let me divert the topic a bit and say something about exam malpractice or 'expo' as it's fondly called. Exam malpractice has a great effect on the fulfillment of God's purpose in one's life; you don't believe me, shey? Okay let me explain, take my case for example. In 2010, I had +250 in my utme exam as I said earlier, but -200 in OAU's post-utme exam. If I had asked for anyone's help I might have scored +200, and with that I'd have been given admission to study architecture or any other related course, I think you know the result of this action if it had taken place. Engaging in exam malpractice after praying to God is an insult to Him if you don't know. It's like telling God that "His help is not enough to make you pass your exams so you have to look for an alternative", I mean help from your fellow human. Asking God to take control before writing an exam doesn't necessarily mean you'll have excellent grades. Oh no! What it means is that He'll get you the grades that will make His plans work out in your life, concerning your education. Remember the bible says " God's ways are not your ways"... doing your best is better than being the rest. Back to the topic, another example of someone who found his purpose in a similar but more complicated way is a friend "Just Pierre". You can read his testimony here:>>>>> www.justpierre.weebly.com . You see, if you don't surrender to God now when all is going well with you, you'll either end up doing so after going through pain( or disappointments) or sadly, you might never, and believe me He'll find someone else to do the job.
I'm not saying you shouldn't pursue your dream of becoming a great singer, lawyer, doctor, politician etc., but what I mean is that you shouldn't make fulfilling your dreams your number one priority in life. Instead, God's will and purpose should be your priority. God will make sure that your dreams come true in a way you never imagined, or like in my case, He'll give you another one that’ll benefit you an Him more IF you make Him your priority.
>>>>Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
>>>>Proverbs 16:3 (BBE) Put your works into the hands of the Lord, and your purposes will be made certain.
If you think you can become successful in the eyes of the world without living according to God's plan for your life, I must say you're right, but you'll achieve that success at the expense of your soul, which is failure in God's eyes. If you don't know i'll tell you where that leads to, HELL!!!. Sadly, what's where most of the most influential and successful people in the world will end up, unless they repent.
>>>>Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 19:24 And again I say to you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
The kind of people you associate yourself with has an effect on how soon/ whether you'll realize your purpose in life. I'll take two examples to explain this, 1 good and 1 bad. For the good, we'll take a look at Saul before he became king.
>>>>1 Samuel 9:5-8 And they came to the land of Zuph, and Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come and let us return lest my father quit caring for the asses, and be anxious about us. (6) And he said to him, Behold now, in this city is a man of God, and an honorable man. All that he says surely comes to pass. Now let us go there. Perhaps he can declare our way to us, how to go. (7) Then Saul said to his young man, But behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread in our vessels is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have? (8) And the young man answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have found the fourth of a shekel of silver. I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way.
When Saul was about to turn back and return to his father's house, his servant encouraged him to continue the search and even gave him his money. Probably, Saul wasn't a bad master for hi servant to have done that to him. If the servant was a lazy and selfish one, he wouldn't have encouraged Saul and this would have resulted in Saul losing his chance of becoming king, or God's plan for him to become king might have been delayed. We both know how his life ended; he messed up and lost his kingship, when he "partially" obeyed God, which was still counted as disobedience.
For the bad, we'll take a look at what happened at the beginning between Eve and he serpent (the devil). (Genesis 3:1-24). Sorry, but you'll have to read that on your own.... After Eve had the conversation with the devil, she fell into the temptation of eating an apple from the tree of good and evil which God forbade them to do. She shared the apple with Adam and this caused a great distortion in God's plan for humanity. You can relate the serpent or devil to anyone who has any of the following qualities, 'cos they're all from him:
>>>>Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies, (21) envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Stay away from people that have these bad qualities "to a fault", they'll never do you good, only harm. You don't have to cut ties with them completely, just keep them far away from your inner circle, 'cos your good qualities and attitude might eventually change them.
>>>>>Exodus 9:16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Till you start living according to God's plan and purpose for your life, you're just existing no matter how wealthy you re. This doesn't mean you won't make it to heaven, you will if you are born-again, but there's no assurance of you getting a reward or glory. It takes some people years to realize their purpose, like in Moses' case, and some not that that long, like in Samuel's case, this was because His mother dedicated him to God even before birth.
>>>>>1 Samuel 1:11 And she vowed a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head."
The scripture above shows how effective parents' decisions and prayers concerning their children's lives can be. Sometimes we might have to go through pain and disappointments to realize our purpose in life. The story of Joseph exemplifies this, how he was sold by his brothers, put in prison twice and later became the Prime minister of Egypt. Let me tell you a little something about me, I know you want to read it, SMH for you. Well, I graduated from Secondary school in 2010, with an excellent result in my WAEC exams, by His grace. I wrote jamb that year, scored above 250, applied for Architecture in O.A.U, sadly, my post-utme score wasn't enough for the course, so I had to wait till the next year. In 2011, I sat for the JAMB exam again, scored above 250, and applied for Elect/ Elect Engineering at F.U.N.A.A.B. I still wasn’t given admission, even though my post-utme score was higher than the cut-off mark or the course, its a long story. I wanted to take A'levels prep class and write the exam, but I later decided not to, thank God I did that. Anyways, I took the jamb exam again this year, scored less than 250, though I was expecting a lot more, applied for Physics at the prestigious University of Ibadan. Thanks to God, I was given admission in August. Those 2 years of waiting at home might have looked like a failure or disappointment to anyone else, but to me, it was a blessing in disguise, 'cos I got closer to God, and I still am.
If I had gotten the admission in 2010/2011, believe me; I don't think I’d be able to write these articles today, I might even have gone farther away from God. In those2 years I started reading my bible consistently, before then, reading my bible for like 20 mins seemed like I was reading it for about 40, and I must confessed it seemed boring sometimes. But now I can read it for about 30 mins to an hour, by His grace, and it's now something I take pleasure in doing. I can also pray for about an hour with ease. I'm not telling you all these things to show-off, but to let you to know that you can do it too, even better. (php 4:13). Enough said about me for now. Talking about exams, let me divert the topic a bit and say something about exam malpractice or 'expo' as it's fondly called. Exam malpractice has a great effect on the fulfillment of God's purpose in one's life; you don't believe me, shey? Okay let me explain, take my case for example. In 2010, I had +250 in my utme exam as I said earlier, but -200 in OAU's post-utme exam. If I had asked for anyone's help I might have scored +200, and with that I'd have been given admission to study architecture or any other related course, I think you know the result of this action if it had taken place. Engaging in exam malpractice after praying to God is an insult to Him if you don't know. It's like telling God that "His help is not enough to make you pass your exams so you have to look for an alternative", I mean help from your fellow human. Asking God to take control before writing an exam doesn't necessarily mean you'll have excellent grades. Oh no! What it means is that He'll get you the grades that will make His plans work out in your life, concerning your education. Remember the bible says " God's ways are not your ways"... doing your best is better than being the rest. Back to the topic, another example of someone who found his purpose in a similar but more complicated way is a friend "Just Pierre". You can read his testimony here:>>>>> www.justpierre.weebly.com . You see, if you don't surrender to God now when all is going well with you, you'll either end up doing so after going through pain( or disappointments) or sadly, you might never, and believe me He'll find someone else to do the job.
I'm not saying you shouldn't pursue your dream of becoming a great singer, lawyer, doctor, politician etc., but what I mean is that you shouldn't make fulfilling your dreams your number one priority in life. Instead, God's will and purpose should be your priority. God will make sure that your dreams come true in a way you never imagined, or like in my case, He'll give you another one that’ll benefit you an Him more IF you make Him your priority.
>>>>Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
>>>>Proverbs 16:3 (BBE) Put your works into the hands of the Lord, and your purposes will be made certain.
If you think you can become successful in the eyes of the world without living according to God's plan for your life, I must say you're right, but you'll achieve that success at the expense of your soul, which is failure in God's eyes. If you don't know i'll tell you where that leads to, HELL!!!. Sadly, what's where most of the most influential and successful people in the world will end up, unless they repent.
>>>>Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 19:24 And again I say to you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
The kind of people you associate yourself with has an effect on how soon/ whether you'll realize your purpose in life. I'll take two examples to explain this, 1 good and 1 bad. For the good, we'll take a look at Saul before he became king.
>>>>1 Samuel 9:5-8 And they came to the land of Zuph, and Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come and let us return lest my father quit caring for the asses, and be anxious about us. (6) And he said to him, Behold now, in this city is a man of God, and an honorable man. All that he says surely comes to pass. Now let us go there. Perhaps he can declare our way to us, how to go. (7) Then Saul said to his young man, But behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread in our vessels is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have? (8) And the young man answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have found the fourth of a shekel of silver. I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way.
When Saul was about to turn back and return to his father's house, his servant encouraged him to continue the search and even gave him his money. Probably, Saul wasn't a bad master for hi servant to have done that to him. If the servant was a lazy and selfish one, he wouldn't have encouraged Saul and this would have resulted in Saul losing his chance of becoming king, or God's plan for him to become king might have been delayed. We both know how his life ended; he messed up and lost his kingship, when he "partially" obeyed God, which was still counted as disobedience.
For the bad, we'll take a look at what happened at the beginning between Eve and he serpent (the devil). (Genesis 3:1-24). Sorry, but you'll have to read that on your own.... After Eve had the conversation with the devil, she fell into the temptation of eating an apple from the tree of good and evil which God forbade them to do. She shared the apple with Adam and this caused a great distortion in God's plan for humanity. You can relate the serpent or devil to anyone who has any of the following qualities, 'cos they're all from him:
>>>>Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies, (21) envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Stay away from people that have these bad qualities "to a fault", they'll never do you good, only harm. You don't have to cut ties with them completely, just keep them far away from your inner circle, 'cos your good qualities and attitude might eventually change them.
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