Having a sense of purpose gives us clear reasons for what we want to do. People with a sense of purpose are diligent because of a true interest in their goal, rather than because they have to. There are three components of a sense of purpose: 1) goals related to sense of purpose are more stable and far reaching, e.g. loving God, managing his creating, raising a family, etc. 2) there is an external aim that reaches beyond the self, e.g. to help others, to safeguard family, work against injustice etc. 3) it is achievement driven. Sense of purpose works from one achievement to the next building and growing throughout life.
There’s evidence that having sense of purpose maintains health and well-being across your lifetime. Sense of purpose also helps you through the low points. When things go wrong, sense of purpose helps you to put this in perspective, preserving self-esteem and giving you the resilience to push forward. It helps maintain optimism about the future, and that underlying belief that you can do it. In other words, having a sense of purpose builds your growth mindset.
It’s a complex concept which can take years to develop. If you’re struggling to understand your purpose, be patient with the process. What’s most important is to identify what makes you joyful, what you’re most willing to put your efforts into, and what you find "of significance".
A sense of purpose eludes so many in society, but even when people tie their purpose to faith, religion, or God, they still fall short. Sin – human nature – remains a barrier to fulfilling God’s purpose, but we are not capable of correcting the problem from within ourselves. Thankfully, God addressed the problem for us through Jesus. We regain our purpose when we respond with repentance and faith and choose faith in God (not merely religion) as our sense of purpose.
We look at Acts 3:14-26. The first Christians were Jewish, and they continued to meet together in the temple in Jerusalem. In Acts 3, Peter and John were going to the temple to pray. They encountered a lame man begging at the temple gate. Peter healed the man in the name of Jesus Christ, which created astonishment among the people present. A crowd gathered and Peter took this opportunity to preach. He began his sermon by asking why they were amazed by what had occurred, noting that it had not been him or John who had healed the lame man. The power came from Jesus Christ, whom God had glorified and whom the Jews had handed over to be put to death.
First, Peter hits them right between the eyes with reality:
Acts 3:14-18
14 You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you. 15 You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.17 “And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets—that his Messiah would suffer.
Peter wanted the crowd to understand that they didn’t just reject some itinerant rabbi; Peter was referring to Jesus as God’s Messiah—the very source of life in their midst—but they rejected Him and killed Him. Because Jesus is alive, He is still at work for God. He works on our behalf as we place “our faith in his name.”
Peter refers to Jesus as the Holy and Righteous One, term synonymous for the Messiah. The demons called Him “the Holy One of God” in Mark and Luke. Jesus referred to Himself in His message to the church at Philadelphia as “the Holy One, the true one”. References to Jesus as “the Righteous One” appear in Acts; and “Jesus Christ the righteous one” in 1 John. In the Old Testament, righteousness was a characteristic of the prophesied Messiah.
Peter pointed out that Jesus was the Source of Life. Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. Peter also noted that God raised Jesus from the dead, that he appeared to numerous witnesses after his death and resurrection. He continued his work on earth even after his death.
The healing of the lame man was through faith in the name of Jesus. “In the biblical sense a name . . . represents a person and is an extension of that person’s being and personality. To invoke the name of Jesus is to call upon his authority and power.”
Obviously, Peter had faith in Jesus, but what about the lame man? The initial moment of faith for the man was when Peter commanded, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” It was the faith of Peter, the circumstances of the lame man, and the glory and attention that the miracle would bring to God that worked the miracle.
The extent of the man’s faith in Jesus is not stated, but it was the faith of Peter in God, the movement of the Holy Spirit to work the miracle, and the desire to bring others to the glory to God that worked the miracle. The quantity of the faith the man had was not germane to his healing; merely his willingness to be healed, and the faith of Peter and the working of God were the main components of this miracle. In fact Peter wanted no credit for the healing. Jesus healed the lame man by faith, and even the man’s faith was not something that Peter could credit to himself. Faith had come through Jesus.
Because of his physical limitations the man was prohibited from entering further into the temple complex, but because of his willingness to have some amount of faith in the workings of God through faith in Jesus he was now able to enter the Temple for the unhindered worship of God.
While Peter pointed out that the Jews did not recognize who Jesus was because of their ignorance, or agnoia in Greek (someone who engages in immoral conduct through a lack of information) this did not leave them without guilt for their rejection of Jesus. But as the healing of this lame man demonstrated to all who saw, there was hope that faith in Jesus results in forgiveness for our human nature and allows our spiritual nature to be reconciled to God with eternal life.
This demonstration is exactly what Peter told the crowd.
Acts 3:19-21
19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning.
Peter notes that through repentance and turning back to fellowship with God sins are wiped out. This refers to the common result that first-century Ink didn’t soak into first-century parchments as ink does on our modern-day paper. A wet sponge could erase whatever was on a parchment. Archeology even demonstrates that previously written characters, while not visible to the eye, may be viewed through modern imaging techniques. This highlights that while our past sins may remain hidden in human memory they are only important to humans. God wipes out the sin permanently. It doesn’t matter how stained we are from our past failures, rebellion, and sin in our own memories, Christ’s death on the cross fully erases and makes us clean in the eyes of God.
Peter also notes that seasons of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. This is in reference to God replacing what is bad with something good. While bad things still happen to believers, invariably something good comes from the process of enduring the bad – a true refreshing. When we repent and turn back to God, God will send Jesus and his teachings into our lives and we can experience the forgiveness and refreshment of His presence in our lives.
Restoration is not only seen in our repentance but also in our changed behavior. The term repent means “a change of mind or practice.” It involves remorse and sorrow, but it also involves a change in one’s thinking that results in a change in one’s actions. The word used for sins is hamartia meaning "missing the mark". Because it is human nature, set in place by Adam and Eve, to miss the targeted standards established by God, humanity must undergo a "learning experience" called life. As we cling closer to God ignoring the call of the worldly we slowly come to learn to live by God's standard and thereby become useful citizens of the Kingdom or God.
As we have seen, the desire to cling to God and God's standards results in God "wiping out" the ledger of sin and the penalties associated with it because Jesus paid the penalty for sin, and because Jesus showed that humanity was capable of adhering to God's standards through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Peter points out that even Moses foresaw the messiah and directed the Jewish people to heed his teachings.
Acts 3:22-26
22 Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. 23 And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people. 24 “In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also foretold these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring. 26 God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
Historically, the Jewish people believed they had received "most favored nation statues" among humanity. They were descendants of Abraham. They had Moses and the law. They had the prophets. They had the covenants, the special relationships God established with His people. At times this arrogance led to a forgetfulness regarding God's standards and the necessity for God to "get their attention" as in Babylon and other historical events they suffered.
Moses, the highly esteemed leader of the Jewish people, spoke of Another. “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you.” The prophets also pointed to Him. Listen to the Messiah and do what He says. Repent and turn to God. He’s the only one worth listening to. There’s great news because He wants us to come to Him. He wants to save us back to a relationship and to the standards that God has pointed out result in good rather than harm.
Jesus was a prophet like Moses in that, as Moses was the mediator of the old covenant; Jesus inaugurated and is the Mediator of the new covenant. Moses delivered the Israelites from slavery to Egypt; Jesus delivers all those who will repent and believe in Him from slavery to sin, death, and Satan. Listening to Jesus involves taking His words to heart and receiving Him as one’s Savior and Lord rather than rejecting Him. It also involves heeding Jesus’s teachings and acting upon them.
God declared that those who refused to follow these instructions would be “cut off from his people” and destroyed, basically these people will be evicted from the family of God and allowed to go through life without God or his guidance. This is a sober warning concerning rejecting God’s offer of salvation through Jesus Christ: those who refuse God’s offer of atonement through Jesus Christ will face eternal separation from God.
The Jews were the inheritors of the covenants God made with Abraham, Moses, and David. However, they had to embrace Jesus as their Messiah to receive the benefits of these covenants in Christ. The ultimate blessing is available through Jesus Christ for all those who repent of their sins and put their faith in God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ, thereby receiving the blessings of salvation.
Life. It is easier WITH God's help and assistance than it is without God.
Certainly it is easier than being in opposition to God!
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