When I was in my 20’s, God opened my eyes to realize that I am a woman of destiny. I surrendered my life to live for God’s purposes, not my own. It was at this time that I realized that I am not here for my own happiness or success, but rather to bring glory to God. I have been on a journey with Christ ever since. It is critical that we understand that we are women of destiny. God has an eternal purpose for our lives. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 5 to see Paul’s explanation of being people of destiny.
Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-5
From verse 5, we see that God has made us for eternal purposes. The wonderful fruit that comes out of our lives because of the work of the Holy Spirit is just a sample of the amazing life that we will have in heaven. We are created as eternal beings with an eternal purpose that begins here on earth. Thus, as verse 7 says: “We are to live by faith, not by sight.” This means that our joy, significance, and meaning of life are to come from our relationship with God and fulfilling His purpose, not from seeking our own happiness, wealth, success or man’s approval. It is the things related to “faith” (the things of God) not “sight”(the things of the world) that we are to live for.
God gives us many wonderful and joyful things on this earth: the beauty of the sunrise, a fun day at the beach with our family or friends, or a lovely celebration at the holidays. But a meaningful life is found when we live according to God’s calling for us. God desires that our parenting, our jobs, our behavior, our marriage, our friendships, our activities, our words be influenced by the fact that we have an eternal purpose. We are women of destiny…made for eternal purposes… to display His splendor, to worship God, and to bring Him glory.
For this reason, Paul says in verse 9, that his ambition (goal) in life is to please the Lord.
Since Paul has an eternal mindset, he is motivated to live a life of influencing others for God’s Kingdom. Eternal principles drive all that Paul does. Here are 5 of these eternal principles:
1. People need to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior to be saved and gain eternal life and be spared of eternal separation from God. In verse 11, Paul says that this is why we should constantly try to persuade men to receive Christ.
2. We are motivated by God’s love. As verse 14 says, the more we are full of Christ’s love in our own lives, the more we will be compelled to help others know God’s love.
3. As verse 15 says, Christ’s incredible sacrifice of His own life for us motivates us to live for Christ rather than live for ourselves or other people.
4. According to verse 16 and 17, we are to view people in a new way because we know that when they become believers, God looks at them as holy and pure, a new creation. Thus, we are to look at people as those who can become completely new through the power of Christ.
5. Verse 18 to 20 tells us that we have been given a new role in life: to become Christ’s ambassador, representing Him to the world and helping others come into an intimate relationship with God.
When we come back into a right relationship with God, where He is Lord of our life and we are living in His power for His glory; the enemy is defeated, and God again is given rightful praise and exaltation. Sadly, Satan has convinced us that we belong to ourselves and that we have the right to live our lives anyway we want. The world says that the goal in life is to be happy. Though when we walk with God, we will experience a joyful and abundant life (John 10:10), we are not here on this earth for our own happiness. We are here to bring God glory and carry out His Kingdom plans.
Isaiah 61:3 ends with calling us “a planting of the Lord to display His splendor.” Through this phrase, we see that our life is not our own. We belong to the Lord. We are here for His purpose, not our own. Isaiah 44:5 says, “One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel.” Walk in the joy of knowing you are a woman of destiny!
Written by Sue Corl
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