In Marketplace Tip #3, I encouraged you to consider your profession/business within the bigger picture of your purpose in life. You may have discovered that this is easier said than done. I’m right there with you. Changing our mindset is certainly a challenge. I promise you it is worth the effort. Turning the way you think about purpose and career inside-out will make you free to live a balanced life that God can honor with peace and power.

This month, I want to encourage you to keep searching for the BIG purpose of your life. Read Psalm 37:4 and consider the following. Your purpose is most readily found in the desires of your heart. God put them there before the beginning of time. He has been orchestrating events to reveal them to you. He will continue orchestrating events that you would have them.

The desires of your heart may feel like a burden (e.g., for the homeless, or prayer in school). It may be something you longed to do since you were a child. It may be a business idea that seemed more like a dream than something you could accomplish. These are all clues, but I want you to know that the best way to expose the desire is to meet the condition: Delight yourself in the LORD.

Now, you might think this means to enjoy God’s presence or praise Him. That is what “delight” means in all the other Psalms. Here, however, the Hebrew word means “to be soft” – like clay in the Potter’s hand. The delight that receives the desire comes from a heart that is humble and surrendered.

Marketplace Ministry Tip: As you are making plans for your business, family and personal life, test God in this: Surrender it to Him and see if He will not bring you into an adventure where your desire becomes His purpose. If you do, then you can rest on the promises of Job 42:2 and Romans 8:28. He can be trusted, for He is steadfastly faithful. What do you have to lose, anyway?

Humbly yours and forever His,

Rob