The Purpose of Our Lives

I've discovered The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime (link below), and I'm using it to help structure my daily worship times.

This morning's concluding prayer reads:

"Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought me in safety to this new day: Preserve me with your mighty power, that I may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all I do, direct me to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen."

While it's not new, our culture teaches us that our goal should be fulfilling our purpose -- doing our thing. What a stark contrast to understand the teaching of God -- that our lives are to be about fulfilling His purpose. It seems so counterintuitive to so many of us.

As a life coach, one of my focuses is to help people understand what they are good at, and to help them find purpose and fulfillment in their lives. One of the things that is most interesting in helping people in this area is helping them discover that fulfillment doesn't come from doing what you're good at focused on self -- but rather doing what you're good at focused on others when that focus is in concert with His purpose.

All of us need God to direct us to the fulfilling our His purpose -- otherwise we get lost in ourselves.