“Some years ago a headline told of three hundred whales that suddenly died. The whales were pursuing sardines and found themselves marooned in a bay. Frederick Harris commented, ‘The small fish lured the sea giants to their death. They came to their violent demise by chasing small ends, by prostituting vast powers for insignificant goals.’”²

Over the years I’ve asked numerous people in many groups how many of them believe that God has a purpose for their life. Almost all hands raise in agreement. But when I ask what their God-given life-purpose is, very few have any idea. I get lots of vague generalities, but very few have a clearly defined life-purpose.

If we don’t know specifically where we are headed in life, instead of making life happen, we allow life as it happens to make us. That is, instead of directing our life, we are directed by life’s circumstances. We become like a rudderless ship with no real sense of direction, wasting our God-given potential on pursuing happiness, riches, or insignificant goals. Unless we know where we are headed, there is a danger that we, like the whales, may make shipwreck of our faith or even of our life.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you do have a God-given life-purpose for my life. Please help me to discover what it is and, with your help, do all in my power to achieve that purpose. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Timothy 1:19 (NLT).

2. John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publications, 1993), p. 31.

At the close of World War II, Jimmy Durante, the famous comedian, was invited to entertain wounded soldiers at a veteran’s hospital. He said he would be able to do only one very short routine as he had two radio shows to do that day.

The man who invited him was amazed when Durante didn’t rush off but gave three complete routines.

“Why did you stay so long,” the man asked, “you’ve probably missed your radio shows?” Durante answered, “Look at the men and you will see for yourself.”

There on the front row were two men, each of whom had lost an arm, who were applauding by clapping their two remaining hands together.”

Whether we have little or much doesn’t matter in God’s economy. What we do with what we have is what counts with him. When we bring what little we have and give that to God for him to use in his plans—and work together—God can do great things with and through us.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, I am available. Please use me today to help lighten another person’s load, to encourage a friend, to love my family, to be a witness for you, or in some way to be ‘as Jesus’ to every person I touch today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Exodus 4:2.

“It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing. I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste means affluence. Throwing away things meant you knew there’d always be more. But then my husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the quiet of our bedroom, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any more. No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat, no more ‘just one minute.’”²

Have you ever noticed how much we appreciate some things or someone—especially when they are gone or when we lose them?

I had a good friend who was very ill and I planned on sending him a special book that I thought would help him. Too late. I had a call from his wife to tell me my friend took his life. I still feel very sad about that. If only I would have sent it when I first thought of it . . . but I didn’t. That happened to me twice. “If-onlys,” only leave one with regrets.

I hope I learned my lesson. Last year another friend was very ill so I sent him some of our gospel literature. Not long before he passed away we received word that he had accepted Jesus as his Savior. For that I will be eternally grateful.

Is there someone on your mind today that you need to contact? Someone you need to tell that you love them? Someone you need to reach out with a helping hand? Let’s not delay but do it today. None of us have any guarantee of tomorrow.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please forgive me where I have failed to do what I needed to do. Help me to always put first things first and not allow even the good to be the enemy of the best. Help me to plan my days and do those things that need to be done each day so I will have no more regrets. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 4:13- 14 (NIV).

2. Submitted by Rev. Lonny L. Remmers, Fire Escape Ministries.

Many years ago a rider on horseback came across a squad of soldiers who were trying to move a heavy log. A corporal stood by giving lordly orders to “heave.” But the log was too heavy for the squad to move. So the stranger on horseback asked the corporal to give them a hand.

“Me? Why, I’m a corporal, Sir!”

Dismounting, the stranger carefully took his place with the soldiers.

“Now, all together, boys—heave!” he said. And the heavy log slid right into place.

The horseman?

George Washington!

It has been said that you can tell a truly great person by the way he or she treats ordinary people.

Suggested prayer: “Dear Jesus God, you were and are truly the Servant of all. Teach me the secret of service and so enable me to find fulfillment in life through serving others. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Jesus in Luke 22:26 (NIV).

When Mahatma Gandhi was attending university in London, he became almost convinced of the validity of Christianity, seeing it as possibly the one true supernatural religion.

After graduation, he continued to seek evidence that would persuade him to become a committed Christian. When he accepted employment in another country, and lived with a family who were members of an evangelical Christian church, he believed this would be his greatest source of evidence for the Christian faith.

Gandhi lived with this family for seven months, but after seeing their casual attitude towards God, hearing them complain about making sacrifices for Christ, and becoming acutely aware of their religious apathy, he became disillusioned.

“No,” he concluded, “Christianity is not the one true, supernatural religion I had hoped to find. A good religion, but just one more of the many religions of the world.”

While circumstances were vastly different with King Agrippa who heard the Apostle Paul’s testimony and rejected it, Gandhi, too, was almost persuaded to become a Christian—but was put off because of a Christian’s poor testimony.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to so live that my behavior and attitude will never turn anyone away from you. But help me to live so that people will see Jesus in me and want Jesus for themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. King Agrippa in Acts 26:28.

In younger days I trained in Australia’s National Service in the Engineers Corps. When constructing Bailey bridges over rivers, we would use large folding boats that were manned by six oarsmen and one helmsman. When we oarsmen all pulled together in harmony, we moved along very well. But it only took one of us to be out of sync and our boat would get off course immediately. At first there were times we went in circles and a time or two we ran into another boat, or into the river bank. With practice we eventually learned to work as a team and pull together. Only then did we get the job done.

Even if stronger people have to slow down a little (which can be difficult for some) to allow weaker ones to keep up, pulling together as a team at home, at work, or at play makes life so much more fulfilling and harmonious. It also gets us to where we want to go. Without this unity we spend lots of energy going around in circles getting nowhere fast.

The locusts teach us a valuable lesson about the power and impact that can be made when we learn to work together in unity and harmony.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be a team player at home, at work, at play, and in the work you have for me to do as a partner in what you are doing in the world today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Proverbs 30: 27 (NIV).

Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of England, said, “I remember being taught by my parents, from my earliest childhood, that the one thing about being British was you did not have to be told what to do. You rose to your responsibilities and took the initiative. Religious belief played a fundamental part in shaping that character because, whether you take the Old Testament or the New Testament, it puts the emphasis on the dignity and responsibility of the individual. You are accountable because you have freedom.”

We, too, have freedom which is a priceless privilege. However, some people seem to think they can use their freedom to do as they please both before man and God. As such they are not free but are in bondage to their own selfishness, passions, and lust. They confuse liberty with license forgetting that the price of freedom is still eternal vigilance, which includes moral and ethical responsibility. Ultimately, if we continue to abuse our freedom and privileges, we will lose them.

With freedom comes responsibility and with responsibility, accountability. We are accountable to our fellow man and above all we are accountable to God. As God’s word says, “For we must all stand before God’s judgment seat.” And again, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to so live that I will always act responsibly, that my life will always bring glory to your name, and that I will not be ashamed when I stand before you face to face. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Romans 14:10, 12 (NIV).

2. Hebrews 9:27.

Comedian Bill Cosby received a lot of flack because he told his own people to quit blaming anyone else for the problems they have, to act responsibly, and develop and use the abilities they have. This is a message we all need to hear regardless of the color of our skin or the circumstances of our background.

In fact, two of life’s greatest abilities are depend-ability and response-ability. Dependability is keeping one’s word. It’s being there when we say we are going to be there, and doing what we say we are going to do. It’s keeping the commitments we make.

Responsibility is realizing that I am totally responsible for what I say, what I want, what I feel, and for what I do or don’t do. True, I was not responsible for my background or my upbringing, but I am totally responsible for what I do about overcoming my background if it were less than desirable, for what I become, and for every area of my life. As long as I blame my past, my parents, my background, the government, or anyone else, I will stay in a self-pitying and self-defeating mode going nowhere fast.

Unless some think I am an armchair-theorist coming from a highly privileged background telling others what they should do, they are mistaken. I came from a very dysfunctional family background, was not allowed to attend high school, made to go to work fulltime when I was still 13, and came overseas to get an education without any help from anyone (worked my way through college and worked three jobs at once during the summers). I made up my mind while still a teen that I wanted to fulfill God’s will for my life, and for my life to amount to something so I did what I needed to do to make it happen.

What I did have going for me was a firm belief that God had a purpose for my life. I didn’t know what it was at the time but I knew that I needed to prepare myself for whatever it might be. Sure there were obstacles to overcome and challenges to meet, but these made me all the stronger. Today it has paid off tremendously. I count it a tremendous privilege to be able to publish the gospel and Christian message and be communicating it around the world to multiplied thousands of people. There is nothing better in life that I could have wanted or wished to do.

The point is, every one of us needs to know that God has a plan and purpose for his or her life, and then employ all of his/her powers for the achievement of that purpose. God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, but he will never do for us what we can and need to do for ourselves—otherwise he would be acting irresponsibly by keeping us immature and over-dependent.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to discover what my God-given life purpose is, and with your help, act responsibly to overcome all setbacks, and develop all of my abilities to achieve my life purpose. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Galatians 6:4-5 (NIV).