Created on purpose

What makes you get up and keep going every day? Did you know that we weren’t created just to consume resources – to eat, breathe, and take up space?

We were each created to give something unique to this world. There is untapped potential within each of us, and until we tap into it, life will not give us the thrill that it should. There is great purpose to each life, and the Bible tells us that “God has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do” Ephesians 2:10b, TEV.

There is a wealth of potential within us. Author Myles Munroe says that the wealthiest spot on this planet isn’t the oil fields or the gold mines but rather in our cemetery. Buried beneath the soil are songs that never were sung, books that never were written, paintings that never filled a canvas, ideas that never became reality. Tragically, our graveyards are filled with potential that will never be realised.

Very few of the over seven billion people on this planet will ever maximise the full potential that God has placed inside them. Most people live mediocre lives and the extent of their capabilities and talents go untapped. Some of us aren’t even aware of the tremendous potential we possess, but more of us are taught not to go for it.

Potential is our unused strengths, hidden and dormant talents, untapped abilities, and capped capabilities. When we don’t aim to fulfil our maximum life potential and walk out all God has for us, our lives end up bland. We’re robbed of the excitement and satisfaction we should get out of our lives, and it is reflected in what we think and say about our lives.

People often say that when they look at their life and the way the world is today, they just don’t see much to be excited about. Others feel as if their lives have gone stale and they have lost all interest in activities that once gave them pleasure. Others say that they feel stuck in their circumstances and are wondering what life is all about. What is life worth? What happened to the joy? There are reasons people feel stuck, discouraged, or adrift and lose their enthusiasm for life. There are reasons God’s people lose their hope, sense of purpose, and their joy.

Sometimes we lose sight of who God made us to be and what He designed us to do. We were each put on Earth to make a specific contribution with gifts and talents designed to serve humanity. For some, it is taught out of us. Some of us, for example, are inventors, but we were taught that we must work for someone else. Some of us were taught that the only satisfaction in life comes from money. Yet after making lots of money we find out that there is no real satisfaction because perhaps God designed us for more. Money can sustain our lifestyle, but helping others is what will truly satisfy us.

Even though there is a great wealth of potential within each of us, we must individually decide whether we will deprive the world or bless it with those gifts that are locked away inside us.

When we don’t actively, intentionally, and purposefully pursue what God planned and desired for us and settle for less, we lose our zest for life. We live in a way that we weren’t designed for, like a grounded bird never able to fly. We cannot be fulfilled unless we do what we were designed by God to do.