Written by Yolanda Magida, CBN South Africa’s Superbook Manager
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
(Ephesians 2:10)
I’m never sure how to answer questions like “what is your purpose?” or “how would you define your purpose?”. I’m pretty sure I am not alone in this. I suppose we can all agree that this is a hard, but crucial, question that begs a response. My generic answer to this is: “I am who GOD wants me to be at the time He wants me to be”. I have come to accept that I have been created to fit into His plans and His mission. It doesn’t matter what role I get to play as long it’s exactly what He wants me to do and at the time in which He wants me to do it. I don’t have a big, clearly defined mission statement. I think it’s about following, obeying and being faithful with what you have been given and with what slowly gets revealed to you as you walk with Him.
Key Elements of Purpose
The keyword for me is walking, the action of moving towards something. That something that I am walking towards is God.
I found that I’m discovering my purpose more and more as I move towards God by following and obeying Him. I have also come to realise that as I seek God, as He satisfies my hunger to know Him, I learn things about myself. And that in turn allows me to walk in the purpose that God has for me – in His time.
Another element of discovering your purpose in God is that there is a required process of abandonment. Abandoning previous plans, ideas, and ambitions that you had for yourself. I wish someone would have taken the time to talk to me about this. Matthew 16:25 says: “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it”. There is a process of leaving behind and of laying down that needs to happen to walk (move towards) in the purpose God has for you.
Changed Ambitions
I don’t know about you, but when I started following God, I had personal ambitions and goals for my life. Those ambitions were not bad in and of themselves, so I assumed that there would be no need for God to rearrange them. However, what I learned is that the closer I got to God, the more my desires were shifting, the more my priorities were changing, and I was moving in a completely different direction than I had initially planned. I was no longer the master of my own destiny, but I was becoming a child of God. This required, and still does every single day, that I let go of any thought I had about myself and the personal ambitions I had. Luckily, the way God created us – our skills, passions and talents – usually lines up with His purpose for our lives.
So where has moving towards God gotten me thus far? I received a prophetic word many years back from a woman in our church that I would be involved in evangelism. I remember thinking at the time that I’m no Billy Graham or Reinhard Bonnke (these were the only evangelists I was exposed to at the time) – this lady must have the wrong person. However, I pursued God despite my reservations, unanswered questions and ambiguity.
Leaning Into and Trusting God
Fast forward to 2021, and my job here at CBN SA entails promoting and advocating for the use of the Bible in homes to impact children’s characters through the use of Superbook.
My final thought is that you shouldn’t be anxious if you don’t have some well-defined purpose statement. You will discover it as you decide to follow, obey and trust God with your life. All you need to know is that His plans for you are good and that He fulfils all of His promises.
Watch Yolanda’s This is Me video below. We hope it inspires you.
