3 Steps to Unlocking your Purpose 2
Step 2: Never Give Up
The 2nd key to unlocking and staying in your purpose is to never give up. It says in the Word that we need faith and endurance to achieve the prize to which we are called in Christ. (1 Corinthians 9:24). A few years ago, I heard a powerful sermon from a guest preacher titled: "Never Give Up". This message was exactly what I needed to hear. To be honest, my motivation, focus and passion had been fizzling out because I wasn’t see movement on a lot of the work that I’d put in. It made me ask questions like, “Am I in the right position? Am I hearing God right? Has He really called me to this? Did I do something wrong to make me fall out of favor?” It is when we are feeling this way that we need to dig our heels in, grit our teeth and keep going. The most common trait among successful people is that they didn’t give up. It isn’t their natural abilities, intelligence or charisma, it is the fact that they kept going because the hardships we face along the way to our destiny are enough to make us quit and tear us down. It is those with endurance and grit who continue running the race and get to the prize.
The Preacher that Sunday said that when people ask him what his secrets to success are, he replies: “Well I haven’t died and I have stopped…it’s not that deep.” That was a profound statement for me to hear at just that moment. God has me working on several different projects at the same time, but sometimes it feels like I’m moving through molasses. Sometimes I lose vision and don’t know how to move forward when dynamics change or there are lots of decisions to make. It’s totally fine to give ourselves grace when we’re working through that and to take a breather. But it’s not fine to quit. Endurance means to “stay under” something, not to run from something. I needed to be reminded of the difference between inconvenience and persecution.
Just because something is taking a while, doesn’t mean we need to quit.
God cares much more about our process and how we handle it than we does about us getting to the actual goal. His goal isn’t to get us to our goal as fast and smoothly as He can. His goal is to transform us into the image of Christ along the way. That is the ultimate goal. So don’t compromise your holiness, your integrity, your thought life, the way you treat people or the words you speak along the way because it matters.