Joshua 1:8 “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
There have been four very dark and black valleys I’ve journeyed through in my lifetime. The first, when I looked to the world in an attempt to find myself and the reason I was here. I walked aimlessly seeking to fill that emptiness inside with drugs, alcohol, parties, friends, and sex. The second was when the doctor informed us that our newborn son was mentally challenged and had cerebral palsy. The third, was after my first husband walked out on our young children and I, and lastly after the death of our son. Each time I was in one of these valleys, I was overcome with a despair and a hollow void in my soul so great that I had no choice but to look for answers. I had spent my whole entire life knowing that I was unique, that I was special, and that God had spoken to me at a very young age, but I just didn’t know how to get to the place I was searching for, and believe me, I looked everywhere. I have to say I have always turned to God in the midst of the valley, but the question was always the same, “why?” Why are You doing this, Lord? It was not until the death of my child, that I finally asked the right question, and that question was “what?” What purpose do You have in allowing this to occur in my life? What is Your plan that You have created me for that I must go through this deep and dark tribulation? You see, I have always had a vision for who God created me to be, but I lacked the purpose to get me there. I lacked the ability to find my purpose because I was always trying to figure out for myself what the goal was and reason I was here on this earth.
Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” What I came to understand, in God’s time, is that He created me for Himself. When I finally asked Him the right question, I stopped fighting Him and finally fully surrendered to Him. You see, without God, life makes no sense; without God, there is no purpose; there is no ultimate meaning. So if that is true, then the purpose of my reason for being here is that I must get to know Him. And each time I was in the valley, I offered myself to Him as a living sacrifice, but it took the death of my precious son for me to finally understand the unique gifts and talents He had been bringing into existence to me through all those years I spent in the darkness. In the depth of those valleys and in the quiet hours I spent on my knees before Him, begging Him to allow me to understand why He was allowing these things to occur… He was creating me for greatness for Himself.
Psalm 1:2-3 says, “But whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.” God has given us a manual to follow so that He can bless our life. We have a resource that gives us every single answer to every single question we will ever have. All we have to do is to faithfully, wholeheartedly follow the Lord, step by step, day by day, and at the end of our life, we can look back and say I have no regrets. Our purpose here on earth is use our gifts and talents for God’s glory; our purpose is to seek and to save those who are lost and to bring them into eternity with us. The only way meaning can come to our lives is to do what we were created to do, and that is to spend eternity in Heaven with our Lord and Savior and those who have gone before us. When we finally come to understand our purpose in life, then He fulfills our purpose here on earth. He calls us to say no to ourselves and to say yes to Jesus every single time. All you have to do is study God’s Word, meditate on it day and night, and be careful to do everything that has been written in it. God promises us that we will be prosperous and successful, but not from the world’s standards. We receive His love and become filled up with His spiritual richness so we can pour Himself out of us and into this dark world. I can say that I now have the satisfaction of knowing I know God’s purpose for my life and I will follow Him wholeheartedly until the very end.
