Fulfill Your Destiny!

“We are made for larger ends than Earth can encompass.
Oh let us be true to our eternal destiny.” Catherine Booth

This is the sixth and final blog post in a series wherein we look at six areas of concentration to focus on in 2016. This final area is perhaps the most important of all: Living out our destiny in Christ.

As I age, I’ve become more and more dismayed by two tragedies. One is when young twenty- and thirty-somethings who were raised as Christians either depart from the faith entirely, or put Christ on the back burner of their life. The second tragedy is when I reconnect with friends from the past who are my age and who, like the young ones just mentioned, have also walked away from their destiny or set it aside for lesser things.

What a waste. Really, a waste of happiness–the true happiness that comes from living a fruitful life in Christ. I don’t mean to judge these people. I just feel bad for them. They’ve made a choice that, in my opinion, leads to less of a life than they could have in Christ. They’re missing out on a great adventure…and for what?

Every single one of us has a divine calling that will reap happiness for us in this life and beyond. I don’t want to miss a single second of God’s best for me…though I know I often do. My procrastination or unbelief or tendency to become distracted often sidetracks me. And yes, sometimes my own sin sidetracks me. Ugh!

Catherine Booth, like her husband William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, didn’t miss out on God’s destiny. Today, a century later, their ministry still flourishes, still rescues the wounded, still bears good fruit. Oh to have a legacy like that!

Well, I’m not William Booth. Whatever legacy I have will be mine, not his and not yours. But Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:10 that we all do have specific “good works” to live out while in this mortal body.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

God prepared our destiny before we were saved…before we were born. It’s ours to claim and to live out.

So my final “don’t” for 2016 is: Don’t delay in living out the plan God has for you. Not for one solitary second!

Do pray and look hard for how God wants to use you in 2016 and beyond.

Be that person.

To recap this six-part series:

Move ahead without guilt and shame.

Pray in faith.

Do not fear.

Walk in the Spirit.

Resist the enemy.

Fulfill your destiny.