Chasing the Beautiful God

You’ve got one life and you get to spend it anyhow you like. But you can only spend it once. Just once. What are you going to do with yours?

It’s a question many of us ponder often through the journey of growing up. I’ve come to a new understanding of how to answer it.

Usually when people ask this they’re looking for answers like: I want to be a lawyer, a dentist, a rubbish truck driver (what I wanted to be when I was 3), a missionary or a pastor. But now I answer: Don’t ask yourself what you want to do with your life but rather ask yourself who you want to be? Who has God called you to be that will transcend your age, your culture, your circumstances, your profession and even your natural life on this planet? In broad brush strokes the answer to that question is: A child of God, a king and priest and the Bride of Christ.

When, by the Spirit of Revelation, we transfer the question of our purpose and calling from things we do to someone we are called to become then the circumstances of life lose their ability to define us. With this revelation, I can be a very successful person while languishing in jail. That takes a great weight off our hearts because the truth is that life is cyclical and like the tides of the ocean our circumstances change from struggle to victory and then back to struggle. If we define our success in life by our circumstances we are doomed to feel like failures most of the time. We are doomed to live discontent and wondering why we can’t find the abundant life Jesus talked of.

The cyclical nature of life’s circumstances proves that what God is primarily concerned about is the size and beauty of your heart. His first priority is that the ashes of your temporary life would be exchanged for the beauty of the eternal life of His glorious Son.

The place where we carry the beauty of Jesus is in our hearts, in our characters. The purpose of your life is to be transformed into the likeness of Christ and every situation you’ve been placed into in this life can be part of God’s perfect leadership to bring forth fullness of life inside you.

When this revelation becomes a reality in our minds we begin to feel some power in life. We begin to feel strength welling up on the inside. It matters how you treat the people God has placed in your life. It matters how you wash the dishes and clean the floors. In all the many circumstances and mundane, unseen situations of life God is birthing something beautiful and eternal in your heart – love, joy, peace, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, self-control and patience. These things are beautiful to Him. When you feel the pleasure He has in those things birthed in your heart oh glory of glories. Hope bursts forth from within you.

All the days of my life, in every situation, I want to go after the beautiful heart of the One who has won my own.

J. Ratcliffe