Day 8: Planned for God's Pleasure

Ok, I know I've been slacking on the Purpose Driven Life posts, but the new year is a good a time as any to get back on track.  Let's pick up with Day 8: Planned for God's Pleasure.  This is also the theme of Week 2 and what Rick Warren calls Purpose #1.  Before we get into the content, I'd like you to think about that.  God takes great pleasure in us being here.  He doesn't get tired of us or cast us aside like an old toy when we become "broken."  As Psalm 149:4a states, "The Lord takes pleasure in his people."  That should be a great feeling, that He loves me no matter what.  Even when I mess up or lack faith or lean unto my own understanding instead of His, God still finds pleasure in me...talk about awesome. 

The rest of the chapter tackles the misconceptions of worship.  This chapter talks about worship being continual - not something you do only at church, not a particular type of style of melody or even a type of song.  We're asked to expand our definition of worship to include everything we do that brings pleasure to God.  This means that we can dedicate even the most mundane tasks to Him, and He will be pleased.  In fact, the question of the day asks us to think about a common task we would start doing if we were doing it directly for Jesus.  For me, I think I could start being better about putting up clean clothes.  Oh, I can wash and dry like nobody's business.  It's the folding and putting up that gets me.  For the new year, I did clean out all the clean clothes from the laundry room...sort of.  All the clothes with hangers went in their respective closets and linen went into its place, but the clothes that needed folding and stacking...not so much.  Instead of sitting in the laundry room, they are now sitting in a basket at the foot of my bed.  Baby steps people...baby steps.  Before I go to bed, I am going to attack at least some of the clothes in that basket.  I may turn on a little Gospel or Christian Contemporary or even have a nice conversation with God/prayer as I put up the clothes. 

What activity will you do to show God glory?

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The Purpose Driven Life Journey

As part of the journey to get back to my purpose, I am going to pick up a book that I've started and stopped at least a 2 or 3 times - Pastor Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life." This book takes you on a 40 day journey to discovering your purpose. To keep me accountable, I will journal my thoughts on the chapters here. Feel free to pick up the book and post about your journey as well.

Day 1: It All Starts with God
There's a very good quote on page 19, "...being successful and fulfilling your life's purpose are not at all the same issue! You could reach all your personal goals...and still miss the purposes for which God created you." This struck home for me because I struggled for a good year over why I was unhappy when I had so many things - house, car, job, etc. Though I was successful by the world's standards, it did not feel like enough. Now I see why.

In this chaotic world of "me! me! me!" I can remind myself that life is really about living for God and not myself by paying attention to God's voice all around me. Rather than listen to what I want and what other people want for me, I can instead strive to do what He wants. I feel like I get this message now, but if you asked me a year ago...

So...God has a purpose for us, and that's very encouraging. I'm excited to continue on this path to fully embracing all He has for me.