Showing posts with label purpose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label purpose. Show all posts

Friday, June 23, 2023

CONFIDENCE = PASSION

 


Confidence. In its true essence, is a strong, positive character trait. When used as God intended, it creates a stable level of stability and more importantly - - control. Confidence is control. Not control of others, but self-control. Self-control leads to the fulfillment of self-purpose. The fulfillment of purpose is the fulfillment of passion. Passion is purpose. No passion – no purpose. The force behind the passion is commitment. Commit to the purpose and satisfy the passion. If I am committed to nothing – I will get nothing in return. I will get back what I put in. But if I commit to my purpose, with passion, it is the fulfillment of passion I will gain in return.


Thursday, March 2, 2023

Live with Purpose

 

I know what it feels like to be freed from something that doesn’t have an earthly bound. I wonder so much what is the point and then remember as long as I am alive that means I have not fulfilled my divine purpose yet. There is still time.

(Ecclesiastes 7:17 says it is possible to die before your time. but as long as you’re alive and well, you should be living for God Luke 20:38 also 1 Corinthians 7)

 

I asked God why don’t you just tell us before we get here what our purpose is and how it all goes down?

 

God said, “that would not only defeat the purpose but would be like telling you the end of the movie before you see the whole thing. That would be like telling you the punchline before telling you the joke. It’s cart before the horse to tell you the outcome before knowing the decision. You must learn to make decisions that bring desired outcomes without knowing all of the possibilities. You must learn to consider which option is best without having certainty.

 

(In other words, that’s cheating; not tell you the “purpose” defeats the purpose)

 

2 Corinthians 5:7 we live by faith, not by sight.

 

 Isaiah 55:8-9 my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 

Romans 14:8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

The point in this is to teach you to think beyond that which you see and embrace that which you cannot see.

 


Sunday, February 19, 2023

“Life Happens on Purpose”.

 


1st purpose: love and worship God-Romans 8:7

2nd purpose: focus my attention on God’s Word; not the world’s ways-John 17: 11-15

3rd purpose: let my life reflect that I am a child of God-Matthew 5:14-16

4th purpose: do out of love – not obligation or for self-James 4:2; Philippians 2:3-4

5th purpose: practice spiritual gifts to exalt the Lord-Romans 12: 6-8

6th purpose: have an intimate relationship with Jesus-Matthew 11:29

7th purpose: remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy-Exodus 20:8-10


You Matter. Live your Life with Purpose. You are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of your Creator. Live like it. 


DeMaster Thomas 2005; 2023

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Working For A Bigger Purpose


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June 25, 2012
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Working for a Bigger Purpose
This was a newsletter I wrote a few years ago that inspired me to write The Seed. I think it’s such an important message and we have so many new readers I wanted to share it again.
What if work wasn’t just work? What if work was a vehicle to live and share a bigger purpose?
I believe there’s flawed perception in our society that in order to live a life of purpose we have to leave our jobs and go solve world hunger, feed the homeless, move to Africa or start a charity.
While these are all noble causes and many are called to do these very things, for many of us our bigger purpose can be found in the here and now, in the jobs we have, right under our noses. And when we find and live this purpose it will provide the ultimate fuel for a meaningful life.
You may not build libraries around the world but you can find the bigger purpose in reading to your children. You may not feed the homeless every day but you can nourish your employees and customers with a smile, kind word and care. And while you may not start your own non-profit organization you can begin a charity initiative at work. After all, "charity" means "love in action." You can make a difference every day and touch the lives of everyone you meet.
While these people may not be starving because of a lack of food, you can provide them with a different kind of nourishment that will feed their souls and feed your own in the process.
I heard of a janitor who worked at NASA and even though he was sweeping floors he felt his bigger purpose was contributing to put a man on the moon.
I met a bus driver who knows his purpose is to help kids stay off drugs.
I met an administrative assistant who has become the Chief Energy Officer of her company.
I received an email from a woman in the mortgage business who sees her job as a way to help couples save their marriages by keeping their homes.
I know a Popeye's Chicken employee named Edith in the Atlanta Airport who makes thousands of air traveler's smile each day. The list goes on...
Ordinary people with an extra-ordinary purpose.
In any job our purpose waits for us to find it and live it.
I can't tell you what your purpose should be but I can tell you that every one of us can find a bigger purpose in the job we have.
I can tell you that every job, no matter how glorious or boring it may seem, will get mundane if we let it.
Purpose keeps it fresh and when we are filled with purpose, we tap into an endless supply of energy.
Don't wait until you go to Africa to start living with a mission. Don't wait until the weekend to feed people who are hungry. Bring your mission to work, start working for a bigger purpose and nourish others in the process.
Share your thoughts about working for a bigger purpose on our Blog, Twitter or Facebook.
- Jon
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Thursday, June 30, 2011

What Is The Purpose of My Life?


How do you discover your real purpose in life?

I’m not talking about your job, your daily responsibilities, or even your long-term goals. I mean the real reason why you’re here at all — the very reason you exist.
Perhaps you’re a rather nihilistic person who doesn’t believe you have a purpose and that life has no meaning. Doesn’t matter. Not believing that you have a purpose won’t prevent you from discovering it, just as a lack of belief in gravity won’t prevent you from tripping. All that a lack of belief will do is make it take longer, so if you’re one of those people, just change the number 20 in the title of this blog entry to 40 (or 60 if you’re really stubborn). Most likely though if you don’t believe you have a purpose, then you probably won’t believe what I’m saying anyway, but even so, what’s the risk of investing an hour just in case?

Here’s a story about Bruce Lee which sets the stage for this little exercise. A master martial artist asked Bruce to teach him everything Bruce knew about martial arts. Bruce held up two cups, both filled with liquid. “The first cup,” said Bruce, “represents all of your knowledge about martial arts. The second cup represents all of my knowledge about martial arts. If you want to fill your cup with my knowledge, you must first empty your cup of your knowledge.”

If you want to discover your true purpose in life, you must first empty your mind of all the false purposes you’ve been taught (including the idea that you may have no purpose at all).
So how to discover your purpose in life? While there are many ways to do this, some of them fairly involved, here is one of the simplest that anyone can do. The more open you are to this process, and the more you expect it to work, the faster it will work for you. But not being open to it or having doubts about it or thinking it’s an entirely idiotic and meaningless waste of time won’t prevent it from working as long as you stick with it — again, it will just take longer to converge.

Here’s what to do:
  1. Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
  2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
  3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
  4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.
That’s it. 

 It doesn’t matter if you’re a counselor or an engineer or a bodybuilder. To some people this exercise will make perfect sense. To others it will seem utterly stupid. Usually it takes 15-20 minutes to clear your head of all the clutter and the social conditioning about what you think your purpose in life is. The false answers will come from your mind and your memories. But when the true answer finally arrives, it will feel like it’s coming to you from a different source entirely.
For those who are very entrenched in low-awareness living, it will take a lot longer to get all the false answers out, possibly more than an hour. But if you persist, after 100 or 200 or maybe even 500 answers, you’ll be struck by the answer that causes you to surge with emotion, the answer that breaks you. If you’ve never done this, it may very well sound silly to you. So let it seem silly, and do it anyway.

As you go through this process, some of your answers will be very similar. You may even re-list previous answers. Then you might head off on a new tangent and generate 10-20 more answers along some other theme. And that’s fine. You can list whatever answer pops into your head as long as you just keep writing.

At some point during the process (typically after about 50-100 answers), you may want to quit and just can’t see it converging. You may feel the urge to get up and make an excuse to do something else. That’s normal. Push past this resistance, and just keep writing. The feeling of resistance will eventually pass.

You may also discover a few answers that seem to give you a mini-surge of emotion, but they don’t quite make you cry — they’re just a bit off. Highlight those answers as you go along, so you can come back to them to generate new permutations. Each reflects a piece of your purpose, but individually they aren’t complete. When you start getting these kinds of answers, it just means you’re getting warm. Keep going.

It’s important to do this alone and with no interruptions. If you’re a nihilist, then feel free to start with the answer, “I don’t have a purpose,” or “Life is meaningless,” and take it from there. If you keep at it, you’ll still eventually converge.


Here was my final answer: to live consciously and courageously, to resonate with love and compassion, to awaken the great spirits within others, and to leave this world in peace.
When you find your own unique answer to the question of why you’re here, you will feel it resonate with you deeply. The words will seem to have a special energy to you, and you will feel that energy whenever you read them.

Discovering your purpose is the easy part. The hard part is keeping it with you on a daily basis and working on yourself to the point where you become that purpose.

If you’re inclined to ask why this little process works, just put that question aside until after you’ve successfully completed it. Once you’ve done that, you’ll probably have your own answer to why it works. Most likely if you ask 10 different people why this works (people who’ve successfully completed it), you’ll get 10 different answers, all filtered through their individual belief systems, and each will contain its own reflection of truth.

Obviously, this process won’t work if you quit before convergence. I’d guesstimate that 80-90% of people should achieve convergence in less than an hour. If you’re really entrenched in your beliefs and resistant to the process, maybe it will take you 5 sessions and 3 hours, but I suspect that such people will simply quit early (like within the first 15 minutes) or won’t even attempt it at all. But if you’re drawn to read this blog (and haven’t been inclined to ban it from your life yet), then it’s doubtful you fall into this group.

Give it a shot! At the very least, you’ll learn one of two things: your true purpose in life -or- that you should unsubscribe from this blog. ;)

Update 8/8/06:  Be sure to read the follow-up to this article, especially if you’re having trouble with this particular approach (there’s an alternative method you can use):  The Meaning of Life: Discover Your Purpose.