Better at Responding to Purpose

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 9:9-13 (NIV) 

What is your purpose in life as designed and imagined by God?

One of the biggest liberations in life is to be fueled by a clear discernment about God’s intended purpose for your life. When you’re clear about your purpose, you stand behind many yeses because you know they are directly in line with the purposes of God in your life.

So, how do we better steward our lives for purpose?

This text suggests that being a better steward comes through better interpreting our “rest stops.” Not rest as in a chill place between point A and point B, but rest as in an intended interlude between where you are moving from and where you are headed to.

Perhaps one of the reasons it was easy for Matthew to walk away from his tax collecting arrangement is because he was clear that it was never a permanent station and only a rest stop.

There are some clues in the Scriptures that Matthew was in a rest stop as a tax collector. For example, being a tax collector assured that you were fluent in Aramaic and in Greek, and accurate in data collection. The qualifications make you the perfect candidate for writing a gospel. Everything Matthew experienced prior to meeting Jesus would be needed so he could have impact for the continual spread of the gospel.

The lesson is to stop regretting your rest stops. These rest stops, these pass-throughs, these certain seasons, these shifting spaces: they birth or confirm vision. They create heightened awareness. They mature spiritual gifts. They confirm callings, talents, and abilities. They contribute to or challenge emotionality.

The ability to interpret when God is moving and what God is saying is critical to becoming better at marrying our lives to His purpose for us.