Finding Your Purpose in the Design

We are all like gloves…

Some are made for evening wear. Some for golf. Others for gardening. What we all have in common is that we were fashioned for a purpose, or as the Scripture says, “we are His workmanship”. But to what end? There are surgical gloves, ski gloves, work gloves, racing gloves, dress gloves, baseball gloves, even boxing gloves.

Want a clue about your purpose in life? Look to the design. Just like gloves, we all have many obvious things in common. Gloves cover the hand, have five fingers and generally are the same shape. But when you look closer, you see the stitching is different, or the fabric, or the color, or the lining, or the durability or the sleekness, etc. The same is true with us. Generally speaking we all have the same number of limbs, fingers, eyes, etc., but yet we are remarkably unique as well.

If you don’t know the purpose of a particular glove, you can ask the manufacturer or the designer, because they know exactly to what end it was created. Want to know more about your purpose? Ask the Lord (the Designer & Creator) how He wired you and what He formed you for.

D.L. Moody was a man devoid of formal education, but had an uncanny ability to win the hearts of people. When as a young teenager he moved from the country to the big city of Boston, his first job was doing menial work in a shoe store. Within 3 months, he had migrated to sales and was the top sales person by far. He repeated this success when he moved to Chicago at age 19 and within a very short time was earning $10,000 per year, which in today’s money would be just over $270,000!

Not one to squander his new found wealth, despite growing up in abject poverty, Moody began saving money, flipping real estate and making high interest loans, all before the age of 24. Not bad for a kid with no education! To learn how Moody migrated from business success to the greatest evangelist of the 19^th century, I suggest you get Kevin Belmonte’s new book D.L. Moody – Innovator | Evangelist | World-Changer. It is rocking my world!

Now, back to the gloves… As wonderfully made as the gloves may be, they will never fulfill their destiny until they are filled with the Hand they were made for. Until and unless God slips His hand, His presence, into our lives, into our very being, we will never know or fulfill His great plan for us.

Wearing surgical gloves for a North Pole excursion would be a deadly mistake. Wearing fine leather, fur lined gloves to work in the garden would be a travesty indeed. But that is exactly what so many people do. They live their life as if there were no purpose, no design, no Designer and unwittingly make havoc of the very life they were given to enjoy with God.

We need God to insert His presence, His grace into our lives. But He waits. He waits until we surrender our will and our life to His gracious and loving hand. Have you done that yet? I shall never forget the day I did that. A day so momentous I can scarce describe it to you, but I shall save story that for another time.

Who knew?

As a picture of this, God inserted a portion of His name into the middle of Abram’s name (and Sarai’s name) and from there totally changed their destiny and human history. Sarai’s name was the masculine form of Sarah. When her name was changed from the masculine form to the feminine form, she was able to conceive and bear a child. Rather profound implications, don’t you think?

Of course, Abram became Abraham, the father of many nations, by the insertion of that same Hebrew letter “heh” which is the 5^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and 5 is also the number of Grace. God inserted His grace into and upon their lives and what God made of them after that still speaks loudly today.

So I urge you today, as you yearn for His purposes in your life, be sure to sincerely ask Him to take the lead in your life. You will in effect be asking Him to slip His hand into your glove, your very life. Then pursue Him daily, read His Word, commune with Him in prayer and song and watch what an incredible thing God can do with and through one man or woman whose life is totally yielded to God. Imagine!

Until next time, be fruitful and multiply!

UPDATE: Our site is restored. No data has been lost. We are thankful. We are adding new features to the site to give special access to all our students. When that is up and thoroughly tested, we will officially begin the launch of the MPI Christian Business Institute. If you want to be included in the launch and have not already done so, be sure to register your interest in learning more, here.