"Self-Help"

I have read a lot of self-help books. They all start with myself, my ego and me. They tend to be predictable:

• Aim high
• Be disciplined
• Believe you can achieve
• Clarify your values
• Consider your dreams
• Figure out what you are good at
• Involve others
• Never give up
• Set your goals
• Manage your time, and more!

Will these efforts lead to success? Maybe. However, being successful and fulfilling your life’s purpose is not the same thing. You may achieve all your personal goals, become a raging success in the eyes of our culture and still miss God’s purpose for your life.

The Psalmist does not start with self.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?”   That Light dispels all kinds of darkness.

Somebody said, “Why pray when you can worry?” When worry works its way to the top of your agenda there is a pretty good chance that God’s purpose for you has been shoved to the sidelines of your life.

To discover God’s purpose for your life is to discover peace. Speculation steps aside for revelation.  The Holy Spirit turned the ordinary into the extraordinary. The Spirit turns what we ought to do into what we want to do.

Maybe God delights in our admission of vulnerability? Maybe it is in those moments we get the opportunity to experience the Lord’s strength. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.”

Blessings,