What Am I Going to Do With My Life?
The more I have the privilege of working with men of all ages, the more I've been struck with the fact that it's not just younger men who wrestle with this question. Men at all ages and stages of their lives struggle through this. I am discovering that grappling with this question is an ongoing part of every man's journey.
I want to encourage you with a challenge from Bart Newman's book, "Because of Baghdad". Bart is our speaker this Thursday night at Man Church.
"I returned to my original question - what am I going to do with my life? At that moment, I realized I had been asking the wrong question. The reason I could never get a satisfactory answer was because I had the wrong focus. I was focused on myself. I was focused on what I was going to do with MY life. Who I would become. How much money I might earn. Without intending to, I had put myself before God.
From that day forward, I trained myself to ask a different question - How will eternity be different because of me? This question forces me to focus on God. It fixes my mind on God's hopes and dreams, instead of my own. . . ." (Because of Baghdad, p. 133)
I want to encourage you with a challenge from Bart Newman's book, "Because of Baghdad". Bart is our speaker this Thursday night at Man Church.
"I returned to my original question - what am I going to do with my life? At that moment, I realized I had been asking the wrong question. The reason I could never get a satisfactory answer was because I had the wrong focus. I was focused on myself. I was focused on what I was going to do with MY life. Who I would become. How much money I might earn. Without intending to, I had put myself before God.
From that day forward, I trained myself to ask a different question - How will eternity be different because of me? This question forces me to focus on God. It fixes my mind on God's hopes and dreams, instead of my own. . . ." (Because of Baghdad, p. 133)
Excellent way to get us to check how we see things.
Consider these:
1. It is not MY life, but God who owns it, over which I am a steward. He created my life, gave me eternal life with Him, and since He ransomed my life, I am His, bought with a price.
2. Whatever effect I will have on eternity is not mine to determine, but His. What is mine to determine is "what shall I do with Christ?" How any of us answers that question,with every choice of every day, is what determines how God will use us to affect eternity. Only He knows what seemingly minor failure of ours will have a negative impact on eternity and on others.
3. What do I love more than Christ? As John Farish says, sin is whatever you love more than Christ.
Like Tom wrote, it is so easy to be focused on ourselves instead of Christ.
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Since we are not in control, the question is what would JESUS do under
these circumstances.Sometimes it takes
one step backward in order to go two
steps foward. Look for good in the
battles so you want get discouraged
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