How to Do a Good Job: 5 Tips for Staying Focused in Purpose
Do a good job. It seems like a simple enough request, until you dig down beyond the surface into the heart, the purpose, and the Source.
I thought I was doing a good job. I even jumped into a new study, and on a weekend no less.
The study made it through the tornado without a hitch. I had promised myself I’d get to it, but life (and other excuses) kept me back. With the start of the new school season and a new home school journey that includes a new grade book with a “FAMILY GOALS” section, I committed to the study.
The first day, I knew it wouldn’t be perfect. What of man’s designs are perfect? I could stop because it wasn’t what I thought it should be, or I could push through, trusting I could learn something from the study even if it was a clarification of what I didn’t believe.
The study wanted me to think about what I wanted people to say about me when I was gone. I skipped that part of the study. I don’t care what people think about me. Thinking about what people think about me is what got me into trouble all of my life.
I wrote this: My goal is to focus on what God will say about me,
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
It may seem too simplistic or altruistic, but it is my heartfelt goal. At the end of my life, and honestly, at the end of each day, I want to hear my Lord declare I have done a good job.
How do I know I’ve done a good job? I have to choose to do a God job – or, to put it another way, I have to make the purposeful choices to do what God leads me to do in every aspect of my life.
How to Do a Good Job
1. Know God.
You can’t know what God wants you to do without knowing God. You can’t know God without knowing God’s Word. You can’t know God’s Word by only hearing it once a week OR by only hearing it from someone else’s perspective. You have to be actively invested in reading God’s Word every single day. If you want to do a good job then invest in knowing God.
- Read five chapters each weekday. You’ll be finished with the entire Bible in less than a year.
- Follow a Scripture Study. I have one that breaks down the Scripture into readings in each section of the Bible. You can follow it and read the Bible in one month, three months, or 13 months.
- Read four chapters Monday through Saturday (taking Sunday off). You’ll finish the entire Bible in less than a year.
- Keep going. NO matter how many times you have read the Bible or a particular part of the Bible, do it again. You change every day, and the Word will speak to you each day where you are (not where you were).
Whatever path you choose, determine right now that you will choose a path and will be invested in God’s Word in a personal and intimate way.
2. Know You.
You were designed on purpose and for a purpose. The more you understand your unique design, the bolder you will be in walking out that design. Paul didn’t speak boldly until he knew his design. John spoke boldly when he understand where God wanted him. Understanding your place in God’s purpose (and therefore your purpose in His design) will fire up a boldness that will move mountains.
- Peel back all the stuff the world, the experiences you’ve had, and the demands THEY have piled on top of you to uncover the heartseed God planted in you at the beginning of time.
- Recognize that you are unique in all the world. There is nobody else like you, and there is nobody else placed where you are at such a time as this to do what you are designed to do.
- Allow your imagination to dream. When you dare to dream, you begin to encourage the possibilities to grow up from the impossibilities.
- Begin investing in believing. When you believe it in your heart and you confess it with your mouth, you are one step away from living it.
3. Know the Source.
Too often we get tangled in the rules of the world because we see the world (or someone or something in the world) as the answer to our needs or wants. The True Source for all of what you have and what you are going to have and become flows from God. God made it all. God owns it all. God is not limited to what the world thinks or says. The more confident you become in your Source, the stronger you will be in your walk of obedience. You will never be positioned to do a good job until you are bold in your pursuit.
4. Know the Outcome.
No matter what the circumstances look like, and no matter how bad things may appear, the outcome is decided. The Victory is secured. Your fight has already been won FOR YOU. If you ever doubt that Truth, dig back into the Word. And once you know that Truth beyond understanding, you’ll be unstoppable – not because of you but because of the One that won your Victory!
5. Know How.
There is only one way to walk in Victory. You walk in Victory when you walk in obedience.
- Partial obedience is disobedience. You can’t almost do what God leads you to do. You either do it, or you don’t.
- Your walk is unique to you. You can’t determine what you should or shouldn’t do based on people. God will direct you. Listen and obey His directions (see #1 above).
- You can’t stay where you are and walk in Victory. You have to move. You have to take action. You have to do something.
It’s been a crazy 18 months for us. Despite all of the chaos, frustrations, and blatant attacks, we are in a better place today than we have been in decades. I am focused on doing what I believe God wants me to do, or so I thought.
Today, the study that I didn’t quite agree with also challenged me to look at my life and judge my journey. “Are you doing what God wants you to do?” I paused and then honestly answered, “No.” And when I said no to that one question, I recognized that no matter how much I was doing well, I was struggling to do a good job in what was most important.
I have been investing in His Word on a daily basis, and even investing more in the last few weeks, but I’m not doing what I know He has called me to do. As I wrote the answer in my study book this morning, I knew I could do more. I knew I SHOULD do more.
God has gifted me with words to lift up, cheer up, and stir up His Children. I have let this calling slide to the side as I pursued the other things THEY told me I could do and things I enjoy doing, but not things that are actively and purposefully focused in what God gifted me to do.
I have the time. I have the means. I have the opportunity. I now have the revelation. Today, I make a different choice.
We all have things that happen. We all have opportunities that are not bad things, but not always things that are focused in what God has gifted us to do and to be. We can continue to be distracted with much doing, or we can be intentional in our choices and do the better things.
Always such good reminders from Kathryn; some more poignant than others. This one was a much-needed reminder of things I “know.” Apparently memory is the second thing to go.
Thanks, Tom. 😀
YOu always brighten my day.