Daily Encouragement: Year 1, Day 45
Adapted from Handbook to Leadership
Personal Development: Purpose/Passion
Before his dramatic conversion (Acts 9), Paul followed a different purpose in life. As a member of the Pharisees, Paul had attained the highest levels of stature. In this instance he could have boasted about his religious training, heritage, and practice. He had been in every sense a textbook Hebrew, and his credentials would have impressed the most devoted Jew. Yet Paul considered all he had attained through religious effort to be garbage when compared with the value of knowing Christ. Paul was more than happy to throw away all he had attained in order to know Christ.
Paul preached that in Christ he and all believers possess all the righteousness of God. And because of the infinite worth of knowing Christ, Paul devoted his life to knowing the Savior. That was his purpose and his passion. And that purpose shaped all he did and influenced all he led.
What’s your purpose, your passion, the one thing that you stand for above all else? Take a look at Paul’s statements again and see how your purpose in life stacks up against his.