What vision do you have for your life? How will you measure your success? While these questions are thought provoking, they are absolutely critical if you want to wring every bit of meaning and purpose out of the one life God gave you.
You might say, “I want to live a life happy and free from pain.” Think bigger. You respond, “Okay, well, I want to be wildly successful and have all the stuff I want.” Think bigger. You think for a minute. “I want to be so successful that history will remember me for centuries.” Think bigger. “What could be bigger than that?” you ask.
God has a bigger vision for your life.
I’m convinced that we think way too small. We have small dreams, small hopes, small goals and small expectations. Because we think small, we live small. But God has a bigger vision for your life. It’s bigger than making lots of money. Many people do that and still feel miserable and meaningless. God’s plans are bigger than your own comfort. Many people play it safe and never venture out into the deep waters of risk and significance. No, God’s vision for your life is bigger. It can’t be contained in this lifetime. It spills out into eternity.
God’s vision is that you would use the one life He has given you in the one place and time He has placed you for the things that matter most, the things that last forever. Anything less is like building a sandcastle on the beach. After all your work is done, the tide rises and the waves come, taking it away without leaving a trace of what was there before. The things that last are the things that matter, and the things that matter are the things that will live long past this life — your relationship with Christ and the souls of men and women you have introduced to Him.
Don’t settle for lesser visions.
Don’t give your best time, effort, enthusiasm and energy to temporary things. Give your best to Jesus and His mission. Join Him in His cause. Ultimately, it is Jesus who will evaluate the success of your life. He will see what you did with the Gospel He gave you and the influence you had on others. On that day, you will receive your reward.
You have learned how to join Jesus in His mission. You started by discovering why living on mission is important and what is at stake if you don’t share the Gospel. You learned from Jesus’ example the importance of reaching out to the people around you and the simple tool of a “Top Five” list.
You learned how to share your “crisis story,” how Jesus cared for you during a crisis in your life. You also learned to share your “Christ story” – how you came to believe and follow Jesus. Along the way you learned the path diagram as a simple tool to explain the Gospel to your lost friends and family members. You learned to answer questions most commonly asked by spiritual seekers, and you learned how to see your life as a field that God wants you to work in for His glory. Finally, you discovered the four main barriers that hold people back from living on mission and how to overcome each one.
You have been stretched and challenged. You have been trained and equipped. Now the question is, what are you going to do with it? How will you choose to live your life — for the temporary or for the eternal?
Take the next step on your spiritual journey.
I want to challenge you to take the next step on your spiritual journey. You know how to walk with God, and you know how to reach your world. But the key to a life of genuine, powerful significance still lies ahead.
Just think: Your life could literally ignite a movement that continues long after you are gone and stretches all the way to eternity itself. Does that sound satisfying and exhilarating? If so, then you are ready to live the life God designed just for you — a life of significance.
This blog features an excerpt from one of our books, Reach Your World.
