We all strive to find our specific purpose for our lives, we anticipate finding out what our calling is, specific to our individual lives. However, Scripture tells us of things that God wills for all of us no matter who we are that I think are crucial to live out in order to effectively fulfill our individual life purpose. There are five things in particular that generally speaking I believe God purposes for each of us.

The first is to simply be thankful. No matter how bad things look, be grateful (1 Thessalonians 5:18). In order to be who God called us to be, we have to be thankful for what we have because it makes us who we are. As we go through life, there are plenty of things that we can complain about or legitimately be upset about, but I think that if we learn to be humble and grateful in the roughest times of our lives, we will become content and at peace. When we have a thankful heart, it’s easier to stay focused on what matters and trust God to handle things out of our control or guide us in the decisions to be made. God’s desire for us is to be thankful.

In a world where sex sells and it’s so glorified, many miss this one more than others. God’s will for His people is that they refrain from sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Sex was made for marriage, not for an extracurricular activity or dating auditions. In order to be all of who God has for us to be, fornication and immorality are serious hindrances to His plans. From dangerous emotional relationships, attachments to others that aren’t helping you to your destiny, which of course is harder to detach from if a child is involved, which I see far too often creates messy situations, or medical problems. Sex outside of marriage limits what you are able to give your spouse, because a piece of you was left with someone else, and living in sin will limit what God will do in, by, through, and for you.

In a world like we live in today, there is a lot of stupid talk; a lot of ignorance, some of which is warranted by a record of ignorant behavior.  As a result, God’s will for us is that we do good, in order to get people to stop talking (1 Peter 2:15). Just considering all of the talk against Christianity, let alone Christ, it mandates us, His people, to do good and to represent Christ well as much as we can so that foolish people will have less ignorant things to talk about.  Do more positive things, the more positive people will begin to speak. In whatever specific calling God has on your life, doing good I am sure is a root of it, because the more you represent the goodness of the Lord, that is what people will begin to talk about.

However, doing good or going against the grain of the world’s thinking or standards of what it is good and right can create a sense of fear. Yet, God’s purpose was that we wouldn’t operate in fear, but in power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Fulfilling God’s purpose for your life requires all three, no matter how big or small. In a world like ours, authority, power, love, sensibility and self-control are critical to substantially changing the culture we live in and impacting the world as we know it, because there will be times when God will need us to step outside of our comfort zone and demand us to take giant leaps of faith, sometimes blindly, but we have to trust that God is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do, and that we are who He says we are.

All in all, whatever our individual purpose is, it’s all about growing the kingdom and being witnesses for Jesus in our homes to the far reaches of the world (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).  To effectively do this, the previous must become a priority for us. We must do good and love one another; we should be bold, self-controlled, sanctified, always being thankful.

There is much work to be done and being you for the purpose of being who it is that God destined you to be, it is essential that we strive to do these things wherever life brings us because they are core to walking in the center of the will of God.