4 Things All Christians Should Be Doing

As a young girl I was asked to do a lot. I was the oldest. My brother was only two years younger than me, but then my sisters were 7 and 9 years younger than me. By the time I was 12-13 my mom had gone back to work part time and my dad had started a new job that was incredibly stressful. 

Over time, I became relied upon by my parents to do it all. I was asked to do a lot of chores, like cooking, cleaning, and laundry. But then I found if I did those things I would get praised so I did more and more. 

On Sunday mornings when my mom worked I would get up and help get my sisters dressed. Putting on their panty hose, fixing their hair. Over time the unconscious narrative I had in my heart was : I was only worth something if I did something. 

My purpose in life was so tightly wrapped around what I did I never even thought about who I simply was. Since then, it has taken some intentional healing and even counseling these past two years to unwind my purpose from what I do for others. 

My purpose is almost always tied to my productivity. 

As a young mom I found purpose at first in the things I did for my children, but soon realized that no one saw that. Then, I began writing online, but when I first started out, no one saw that either. What was my purpose?

You Are Not….

For a long, long time I struggled with purpose. Even serving on the mission field was hard. What made it even harder is our agency didn’t really see much value in my work. They discouraged my writing, at one point said, “Jason was the missionary, not Sarah.” It was a hard thing.

In fact, that statement was so deeply painful, I still struggle from that hurt. But I realized something, over time, that even if a role is no longer mine or a piece of my identity shifts, my purpose, my worth, is never changed! 

As Christians, our roles change, hanging onto purpose seems hard. We want a clear-cut answer to “What is my purpose?” Although I can’t say what specific purpose has for your life, I can say we all have several general purposes for our lives. 

As Christians we read the Bible and discover lots of things God has us do.

Our Purpose

1. Share the Gospel. We are told to tell others about the Good News of Jesus! Share about how Jesus rescued us from sin and the free gift of salvation is available to all who repent and believe. (Mark 15:16:15-16)

2. Be kind, loving, and patient with others. Over and over again we are told to treat others with respect, loving even our enemies. Although this does not mean being a “doormat,” and sometimes we do need to set up boundaries with those who have hurt us….we can do so in a loving way. (Colossians 3:12)

3. Love God with all of our heart, soul, and minds. The first commandment and the greatest commandment in all of the Bible is to love God. We might think that’s easy, but loving God means to put him first in our life. It means we seek him above everything else. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

4. Become like Christ. We will not be perfect people on this side of heaven, but we can seek to be like Christ. Studying the life of Christ is one of my goals next year and I can’t wait to see how God moves in my heart to start acting, believing, and seeing Christ more in my day-to-day life. (Philippians 2:5)