Realigning Your Purpose, Practically

When most of us hear the word “reset,” we immediately think restart, but sometimes the problem isn’t that something is broken, it’s that you’re looking at it from the wrong angle. We assume something is wrong because we feel stuck, restless, or unfulfilled, so we restart. But nothing actually changes because we never stop to reimagine why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place.

Reset doesn’t always mean doing your life differently. Sometimes it means seeing your life differently.

Looking again at who you are, where you are, what you’ve been given, who’s right in front of you, and realizing that purpose might not be something you’re missing, but misunderstanding.

We all want our lives to mean something, to have purpose. Most of us don’t struggle with laziness. We struggle with misalignment. We want our lives to matter, but we’re not always sure how.

We look for purpose as something to be achieved rather than something to be received and stewarded.

We don’t need more potential because there’s always potential. It’s a matter of what happens with it.

Reimagining Our Purpose
Paul reframes everything in Ephesians 2. He starts with honesty, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins…” But then God did something about this that we couldn’t do.

Ephesians 2
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace…

God didn’t wait for us to try to find purpose. He made us alive for a purpose.

How? By giving us a list of things to accomplish.

Ephesians 2
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

This is the HOW. But what about the WHAT?

Ephesians 2
10  “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Good work is not the point, it’s the product. Many people can read verse 10 and assume that our purpose is to do good in the world. The challenge with that is that before Paul wrote verse 10, he wrote verses 8-9.

There’s a progression here: grace, identity, works. Not works, acceptance, identity.

We’re not doing good things so that God loves us. God loves us, therefore, we aim to impact the world based on the love that we’ve been given by God. These good works have been prepared for us, they’re not something we manifest ourselves.

Recognizing God’s Handiwork
A masterpiece may have intrinsic value, but its ultimate and lasting impact is actually the impact on others, especially over time. You may not see yourself as a masterpiece, but God does! However, you need to have faith that God sees you differently than you see yourself.

There’s a reason we struggle to let our light shine or our purpose be seen in the right places in the world – it’s because it’s an incredible risk. Think of any musician who wrote their first song or author who wrote their first book. Taking that chance is one of the most terrifying things.

But God sees you and goes with you! He sees what happens when you start walking in purpose before you ever do because He created it.

Purpose doesn’t start with what you do – it starts with what God has already done.

It’s something we find or discover, it’s something we’ve been given. Now, God has done something, yes, salvation, but also wiring. He’s given us more than just salvation, but unique gifting and placement.

• Passion – What gets your heart stirred? Injustice. Connecting people. Solving problems.Passion is like fire – with boundaries, it brings warmth and life, without boundaries, it destroys everything.
  
  Passion rebels against discipline – but it needs it.
  
  Without discipline, it has little impact. Directed, channeled.
  
  
• Position – Everyone has roles. Great failures of our time are people who don’t show up to their positions, people who use their positions for themselves, or people who look at their current positions as a limitation, not an opportunity.  
  
  God places us where He has a purpose, not by accident.

• Proficiency – What are you good at? Where do things get better when you show up?
  
  Are you neglecting the gifts you have while wishing for the ones you don’t?
  
  Proficiencies aren’t just abilities, they’re also resources.God doesn’t ask what you don’t have, He asks how you’re using what you do have.

•  People – What relationships are you taking for granted, avoiding, or phoning in? Who have you already placed in proximity where your life could make a real difference, but you don’t see it or don’t want to see it?
  
  

So, how do we apply this? Ask yourself some simple questions.

• What excites you? (Passion)
• Where am I? (Position)
• What am I good at? (Proficiency)
• Who can I impact? (People)

Pastor Michael Hoddy sits down with Pastor Joey Monteleone to break down how we practically do this in our own lives.