Purpose Pushes Past Discouragement
Knowing your purpose pushes past discouragement and distractions being thrown in your path by the world.
The world wants you to fall into the trap of falling in line. Your path is so much more than the in-line demands of the world can allow.
You are made for purpose – unique to you and unique for you. God designed you (yes, YOU) for such a time at this. What He started in your life – planted in you at the beginning of time – HE WILL FINISH.
Let’s say that together so the whole world can hear!
What God begins,
GOD
WILL
FINISH
He’s not a plant-it-and-forget-it type of gardener. He plants. He tends. He nourishes. He calls us to reap the harvest.
The part we play is to get in line with His Will.
#QuoteoftheDay
Be alert!
Discouragement
is a little negative
with a lot of power.
– Kathryn Lang
The Bounty of the Harvest
Most people I know like to bask in the bounty of the harvest. Many enjoy the planting of the crops. Few endure the full process. There’s even a meme that goes around at the start of planting season about the amount of time, energy, and resources that some invest in growing that one fresh tomato.
But most people will invest all kinds of time, energy, and resources into a garden that has been prepped, planted, and prospered by the One who knows more about gardens than anyone else. They’ll dig up seeds, overplant crops, and basically tromp all over the beautifully designed rows.
Because we have to do something.
Because it’s up to us.
Because we have to work harder and harder.
BECAUSE
We BE hard at it and CAUSE all kinds of issues. So often, we BE the CAUSE.
If we just followed the lead of the Lead Gardener, and went about His business, then we’d be the workers mentioned in Matthew 9.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
God ALWAYS finishes what He starts. We just have to be positioned to receive the blessings of His work.
Learning to Believe
When my boys were little, we took them and a friend to the aquarium in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Just after crossing into the state, the boys got a bit rowdy and after making a couple of requests from upfront, I made the ultimate demand. “Y’all calm down now, or we’ll go home.”
My boys instantly got in line. Their friend wasn’t so complying. “Stop.” I heard my younger son. “You heard her.”
His friend snickered. “She won’t take us home now, we’re almost there.”
I watched through the mirror as my oldest gave his friend a grave stare. “You don’t understand. If she says it, she means it.”
Their friend looked from one to the other, and when he was certain that they were both serious, he followed along.
Not only did they behave for the rest of the ride to the aquarium, but they followed instructions once we arrived. If you’ve ever tried corralling young boys, you know it can be a lot like trying to herd wet cats.
My boys had experienced the truth of my words. They knew and fell in line. Their friend hadn’t experienced my words, so it took the word of my sons to get him to follow suit.
Have you ever experienced the truth of God’s Word?
It Takes Truth to Keep Things Going Right
I know the Truth. I believe the Truth. But I live in a world full of lies, deception, and deviousness the likes of which I think would have made the serpent blush.
Sometimes, I listen to those lies more than I dwell in the Truth. When I do, the lies lead.
“I believe that the breakthrough is right there. I feel it in my bones.” I shared with a friend. It had been a rough few weeks . . . and months . . . and years. But I knew it deep down in my knower that if I could just make it through one more step then the breakthrough would FINALLY be revealed.
“You’ve been saying that for seven years and what do you have to show for it.”
Okay, maybe my friend wasn’t as much of a friend as I needed her to be. Her words cut deep and made me question the step I was taking, the steps I had taken, and the dream I dared to pursue.
In the Doctor Who episode, Turn Left, Donna knows which way she wants to go, but her mother begins to berate her to the point she finally gives in to the direction her mother wanted.
Donna was a FIERCE woman. She stood up to the Doctor from the first time she met him. She was stubborn AND obstinate (ask my husband sometime about that phrase). And yet, she caved in. You could see the dejection that drove the decision in her body language and hear it in her voice. You felt her surrender.
That’s how I felt when my “friend” pointed out that I had been believing for my dream for seven years. “You’re right. Why bother?”
When discouragement is allowed into the equation, even just a little bit, it can make a big enough impact that the whole world shifts around you.
Doubt Grown from Obstacles
Have you ever found yourself in a place of doubt just after a place of rejoicing or breakthrough?
Doubt is what gives us the fuel to get out of line. We doubt ourselves. We doubt our purpose. We doubt the truth.
We knew we were going to have a living estate sale to rid ourselves of all of our stuff and make an investment in the ABUNDANT LIFE PROGRAM – both the workbook and the courses, webinars, and seminars. So I was excited when the estate sale company messaged me, “A slot just opened, are you ready?”
“Yes!” I answered without hesitation.
It was exciting and nerve-wracking. But then I realized we were a far cry from being ACTUALLY ready. My head was in the right space, but not so much our stuff.
Not being ACTUALLY ready sucked the joy from me even though I had spent the weekend experiencing the excitement of taking the next step.
The moment I let discouragement sneak in, it propped open the doors for doubt, despair, and dejection. If you look closely, you’ll see it sending out invitations to all its friends with flag signals.
Discouragement is a little negative with a lot of destructive power.
The realization that we weren’t completely ready wasn’t a hard stop. It was just an obstacle in the process of completion. But discouragement gathered the forces to convince me otherwise.
Cutting Through the Detours
Have you ever gone on a trip where you knew exactly where you were going, how you were going to get there, and had the car packed and the timeline set? Only, when you get on the main road, there’s a detour.
So, you turn around and go home, right?
Or maybe you sit there and wait for the detour to be removed even though it eats up the time you will be able to invest in your destination.
Or, maybe, just maybe, you either follow the detour until you are back on the main road or you find and map out a new path to your destination.
When it comes to vacation locations, no detour will stop most of us. But when it comes to the destination of our BIG DREAM goals, those detours can talk us out of our truths. But you have to know your purpose to stand firm in that truth.
Facing Down Discouragement to Embrace Purpose
As I faced down the discouragement of not being where I thought I was, I found a recent event from a motivational force of nature. Kirk Nugent challenged me to look at the obstacles and learn. “Say to your obstacle, ‘What are you here to teach me today.”
His share stirred up the foundational truth of WHYning (the art of investing far too much into the discovery of WHY) – knowing why won’t change anything in the past. Determining what now or what next will fuel the ability for motivation to cut through distractions.
It clears the way for purpose to shine through. Once I see that light, I can take a step – even if it’s a little one.
When I stay stuck in the distractions, the detours, the discouragements, and the WHYning, I go nowhere (or worse, I slide back to where I was).
When Katniss faces a huge setback in Mockingjay, Finnick tells her that she has to keep it together. It’s ten times harder to put it back together than it is to keep it together in the first place. It’s ten times more challenging to get back to the starting point once you let yourself fall.
I accepted the truth. I wasn’t where I needed to be. I used that truth to motivate a little bit. Every time I got up from work to check on the dog or to take a break, I did a little bit. Within a week, not only was I where I needed to be, but I had accomplished just that little bit more that gave me a boost for a little bit more.
When we face down discouragement with honest truth, determination, and a focus on purpose then we will win.
How do you deal with discouragement?
