I began reading one that I received at Passion called "Purpose". It is about discovering the purpose God has for our lives. The main verse that this discusses is the Amplified Bible version of Philippians 3:10. This says, "My Determined Purpose is that I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person." In this book she dissects every single word and its relation to the verse as a whole. I am just going to talk about the first 3 words "My Determined Purpose".
In my opinion, the reason Paul uses the word "my" first is extremely important. This is because it is so easy to focus on the lives of others. We are so quick look at others lives and think that they need to get their act together, or they need to change. Often times we spend so much time doing this that we lose track of our own relationships with God. We try to cling to the people that we love, and often this leads us thinking that we need to fix them or control them. All the while, we haven't truly experienced God for ourselves. So back to the verse, the only person that you can determine the purpose of is yourself.
The next word is the word determined. The word determined in the dictionary means, "the act of making or arriving at a decision; the quality of being resolute or firm in purpose; the act of settling a dispute..." We must have a decision made up, firm in purpose, to know Christ. I learned something really neat about the word covenant. If you have gone to church your whole life you have probably heard that word many times, and God refers to the "new covenant" as his church. Well, the word covenant is berett in Hebrew. Another word for berett in the Hebrew dictionary is not only covenant, but the word determination also. So God has not only made a new covenant, but a new determination with us through Jesus. He will never give up on us.
The last word in that phrase is the word "purpose". Purpose is so important to the lives of humans. everyone seeks to know why they are here and what their purpose is. If we have purpose to our lives, it gives us strength to get through almost anything that we face. It is so common to live your life doing many different things everyday, but not doing any of them well. But God has designed a purpose to each of our lives, and once we have that we have a feeling of fulfillment.
Now go back and read Philippians 3:10. "My Determined Purpose". As you read think about how those three words impact the meaning of that verse, and think about what an amazing purpose God has called us to. If that verse is YOUR DETERMINED PURPOSE, then I believe that it has the power to transform every part of your life.
The next word is the word determined. The word determined in the dictionary means, "the act of making or arriving at a decision; the quality of being resolute or firm in purpose; the act of settling a dispute..." We must have a decision made up, firm in purpose, to know Christ. I learned something really neat about the word covenant. If you have gone to church your whole life you have probably heard that word many times, and God refers to the "new covenant" as his church. Well, the word covenant is berett in Hebrew. Another word for berett in the Hebrew dictionary is not only covenant, but the word determination also. So God has not only made a new covenant, but a new determination with us through Jesus. He will never give up on us.
The last word in that phrase is the word "purpose". Purpose is so important to the lives of humans. everyone seeks to know why they are here and what their purpose is. If we have purpose to our lives, it gives us strength to get through almost anything that we face. It is so common to live your life doing many different things everyday, but not doing any of them well. But God has designed a purpose to each of our lives, and once we have that we have a feeling of fulfillment.
Now go back and read Philippians 3:10. "My Determined Purpose". As you read think about how those three words impact the meaning of that verse, and think about what an amazing purpose God has called us to. If that verse is YOUR DETERMINED PURPOSE, then I believe that it has the power to transform every part of your life.
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