Staying on Purpose // Rekindling the Flame, Part 2

<p>Most of us have a sense that there’s some plan for our lives, some purpose ... or at least there’s supposed to be. But the easiest thing in the world for us to do is to be drawn off purpose; to find ourselves living a life that deep down, we know wasn’t the one that we were meant to be living.</p> <p> </p> <h3><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>A Soldier for Christ</strong></span></h3> <p>I don’t know if you have been able to join me last week on the programme but we have been chatting about getting back on purpose. You can always tell a Christ-follower who is struggling because that would be the Christ-follower who has been drawn off purpose. They have become overly reactive to their circumstances, chasing after what the world says is the right thing, rather than persevering through the tough times and doing what God has called them to do.</p> <p>I spent ten years as an officer in the Australian Army and at all levels of leadership, from junior to senior ranks, one of the key principles of war is the selection and maintenance of the aim, in other words – staying on purpose. In other words, knowing which hill it is we are about to capture. And when the bullets start flying and the shells start exploding around you, staying focussed on taking that one hill, which is the reason that we are out here getting shot at in the first place.</p> <p>It turns out that being a Christ-follower – which is what a disciple is – is exactly about the same thing. And there are far too many who have been drawn off purpose and so have ceased following Jesus. Now, that may seem a little harsh and direct, so humour me and let me unpack that with you.</p> <p>We are taking another look this week at the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his young protégé, Timothy, because it’s a letter all about maintaining our sense of purpose and focus, remembering what we are here for – despite the bullets that are flying around and the shells that are going off around us, despite our circumstances – be they a mundane grind, be they a challenge or b