Eight Principles for Purpose

Eight Principles for Purpose

1. God wants us to work and not to be idle or lazy.
Some people consider work to be a necessary evil. But even within the utopia of the Garden of Eden, God assigned work to Adam. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). Work has always been part of God’s plan for mankind.
Although work is difficult, idleness and laziness are destructive. God wants us to work and He wants us to work wholeheartedly. In Hebrews 6:12 we read, “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
Ephesians 6:7-8 teaches, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does whether he is slave or free.”
2. God wants us to trust Him for the necessities of life.
Worrying about the necessities of life can become a major driving force for us. Soon we become so preoccupied with our needs that we don’t have time for God or anything else. Knowledge about God is an antidote to worry. As we get to know our sovereign heavenly Father better, we come to understand how much He loves us, how important we are to Him and how committed He is to take care of us. Jesus taught us how to live dependent on God in the Sermon on the Mount:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what
you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6:25-30).
3. God wants us to be devoted to Him and not be obsessed with accumulating money and possessions.
Again, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructed on our attitude about our material possessions:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-24).
Paul teaches in Philippians 4:11-12:

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.