Being a Woman - With Purpose

Purpose is such an important thing! A life without purpose leaves us feeling very lost and a life lead with purpose will completely satisfy and fulfil us. It is interesting to see the incredible contrast between a woman who is living a life of purpose and a woman who is not! My desire is that you all live a life of purpose. We were all designed to be a certain way and to do certain things. God made us for a purpose and when we live fulfilling that purpose we are content because we are doing what we were made to do. 

That leaves us with one big question! How do I find my purpose? 

This is a common question with no precise answer. Finding your purpose is a very personal journey that varies from person to person, but I do have a few tips that might point you in the right direction. There are some things that we were all made to do and when we are doing them, we will find ourselves completely satisfied.

We were made to love God

Matthew 22:37

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

It starts and ends with God, anything outside of God won’t satisfy. We were created by Him to love Him and all the history books and the Bible tell story after story of what He has done to win our hearts. You see God gave us free will and He wants us to use our free will to love him back just as He loves us. It’s that simple, anything that causes us to love God more will satisfy us deep down inside because this is why we exist – this is our most basic and fundamental purpose. If what you are doing with your life causes you to love God more, to need Him and to grow closer to Him, then you will find satisfaction in it.

We were made to love people

Acts 20:35

I have shown you in every way, by labouring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Do you know how great you feel when you receive a gift? Well to give feels even better than that feeling and to live a life of giving results in a very satisfying life! Our purpose is to give and when we live to give rather than to get we begin to find our purpose as a human being. Try it; in any situation that you might find yourself in, instead of seeing what you can get from someone see what you can give. I guarantee it will change your life and you will begin to see how much more there is to life that you ever realised. We are called to love our neighbour as much as we love ourselves . So consider how much you love yourself and look after yourself, and then do that to someone else too.

We were made to love life

John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Jesus came so that we could live life abundantly!

2 Corinthians 9:8

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

There are even more Bible verses that show of how much God wants us to live in abundance, having everything we need and all the desires of our heart. It is in this abundance that we find satisfaction and our purpose. Actually I have found it works the other way around, when we find our purpose we begin to truly live life in abundance. Our purpose causes our life to make and sense and we begin to seek God for His abundance so that we can fulfil our purpose.

So with that in mind here are 5 ideas to help you start discovering your specific purpose:

1. Write down what you excel at naturally now or perhaps when you were younger.
2. Write down the subjects did you enjoyed most at school.
3. Write down what you find yourself defaulting to in any given situation? For me it was organising things, in any situation I will always see a system that will make things neater and more efficient! Bingo, I must be an administrator or a manager.
4. Have a long, hard, honest look back over your life up to this point and see if anything stands out to you that might define you. This may help you find out what God has put inside of you, which will help you find your way to your purpose. For me it’s writing, I have loads of notebooks in my home full of my writings and ponderings. I have always been this way; I am not content if I can’t write. Often, if I need to process something that I am going through in a season of my life, I write a short book about it. Even if it never gets published, it helps me process what I am going through.
5. Most importantly ask God to show you who you are, He is so faithful and if we ask He won’t let us down.

From time to time have a look at all these things that you have written down, add to the list and take away if necessary. Slowly a clear pattern will begin to reveal itself. Once you know who you are you will have a better idea about what you were made for. Combine that with loving God, loving people and loving life and BOOM! Your purpose will begin to emerge. For a more thorough look at this, read the chapter on ‘Finding Your Purpose’ in my other book, Hope’s Journey where I share my journey that helped me find my purpose in great detail.

The Being a Woman book and worksheets are available here.