Daily Encouragement: Day 357

Adapted from Handbook to Spiritual Growth

LIFE HAS A PURPOSE

Those who have been found by Jesus know that life does have a purpose. But even believers tend to forget the important because of the clamor of the urgent. Like the Israelites who disbelieved God at Kadesh Barnea and wandered in the wilderness as the years raced by, our lives can become a wilderness of routine and of crowded schedules. While the urgent tasks call for immediate attention, we can overlook the important things, since they can always be deferred. We rationalize our postponement of the important by letting the good become the enemy of the best.

We need a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12); if we blind ourselves to reality, our whole value system will be distorted. The eternal is what gives meaning to the temporal. It is when we live in the light of our true destiny that we see our calling and purpose from a biblical perspective. Instead of asking, “What will I leave behind me?” it is better to ask, “What am I going to send ahead?” As ambassadors of Christ, we have been entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:16–21) in a lost and dying world.