Read: Esther 4:1-14; Ephesians 1:11-12 

One of the most difficult questions for many believers to answer is this: What is your purpose. The Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians that God chose us before the foundations of the earth to live a life of purpose in Him (1:11)! Eugene Peterson in his paraphrase, The Message, interprets verses 11 and 12 this way: “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.” So in a general sense, though we have been made unique and different from one another, we share the same purpose.

Many people tend to be confused about their purpose for two primary reasons. First, we generally do not understand what real purpose is; and, second, we do not always know how to position ourselves for that purpose. Our primary purpose in life is to first maintain relationship with God, and out of that covenant relationship grows our secondary purpose of building the Kingdom of God by making disciples. Within the Reformed Christian tradition the first question of the Westminster Catechism asked: What is the chief end of man? The answer, drilled into generations of catechumens, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Such an understanding of purpose flies in the face of accepted societal standards. From the time we reach an early age of understanding we begin to be focused on a career or the possibility of several careers that will provide our livelihood and secure our dreams for the future. But counseling chambers, mental health facilities, doctors’ offices and even cemeteries are filled with people we are or were frustrated and confused about their life’s purpose. Understand this: God never does a thing or allows a thing without a purpose. God, therefore, has a unique purpose for each of our lives. He knows the plans He has for us. They are plans to prosper us, plans to do us no harms, plans to give us hope and a future. The question each of us has to answer is: how do we get positioned for that purpose that may yet to be revealed?

Maintain a healthy relationship with the Lord. There is no purpose outside of God. As Paul tells us we were created for relationship, but sin got in the way.

Trust that God will show you His purpose for your life. God knows the purposes and plans for our lives. We may not know that purpose but we can rest in assurance that God knows.

Accept the fact that God’s purposes for your life may remain hidden until your time evidences itself.

Work building the Kingdom of God until your time comes. Be found faithful thereby not missing your position when it is time.

Our object lesson is Queen Esther. She was a Jewish orphan, raised by her uncle, who won a beauty contest and became queen. She had no idea that she would become the savior of her own people. She had no idea that her ascendancy was precisely to thwart the evil designs and plans of Haman as he sought to commit genocide on a sovereign people. She had no idea that she had to win the contest in order to fulfill her purpose. If you remember the story, when her uncle Mordecai sends her a message telling her to go the king and intercede for her people she is initially hesitant. No one came before the king without first being summoned. To do so meant risking death, but Mordecai reminds Esther that the very purpose of her birth may have been for this moment.

Esther did not know what her future held, but she ultimately knew that she belonged to God. So when it became clear that if her people were to be saved she would have to do something, including risking her very life, she called her people to join her and her handmaidens in fasting and praying for three days after which time she would go to the king with the attitude that if she perished, she would perish. When God shows you your purpose and indicates that it is your time the only response is to step into it with no thought of what it might hold for your future. But when you step into your purpose Esther demonstrates that God will not only cover you and protect you, but he will reward you and prosper you.

I want to be in the right position. I don’t want to miss my time. So I am determined to be ready when it becomes evident that it is my time and then trust that God will accomplish through me what He has determined to accomplish since before the foundation of the world.