Understand Our Purposes

UNDERSTANDING OUR PURPOSES

(Proverbs 20:5) The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters but a man of understanding draws them (his purposes) out. (Emphasis throughout this article has been placed on the plural of purpose, so keep in mind, we have more than one purpose in this life.)

(The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters): What are purposes? Purposes are the goals or deepest desires a man intends to accomplish. What are deep waters, well, that may take a little more than one sentence to explain?

Deep waters according to www.windows2universe.org  are found in oceans where depths can reach up to 32k feet. The water continuously cycles through different zones between the surface water and deep water. This cycle is called the conveyor belt cycle and the zones consist of the sunlight zone and the trenches. The sunlight zone is where the most sunlight touches. The trenches have water less than zero degrees and yet life still exist there. The deep ocean waters make up 90% of the ocean’s volume. As the surface water becomes colder and the salt density increases the surface will then sink into the trenches. The temperature of the surface water has a greater effect than salinity on determining when the water sinks into the trenches.  

                How can this relate to our lives? While we are in our sunlight zone we see possibilities and our destinations. We have visions and things we want to accomplish. Sometimes we lose our focus; we get cold and stop sharing the gospel with others. This in turn allows the ‘salt’ that we are supposed to be to the world to build up within ourselves. Once our hearts become colder and the salt density increases in our lives, we begin to sink into the trenches.

While we are in the trenches we lose our focus, forget the real purposes we were created for, and no longer resolve to accomplish the deepest desires of our soul. This is a continuous cycle that we repeat. There are times we in the sun light zone and could never imagine being in the trenches and there are times we are in the trenches and feel we will never see the sunlight zone again. But just as life still exist in the trenches, so does our purposes.  

Our purposes are lodged deep within your spirit. These desires propel us to live a life that matters, to fight to get back in the sunlight zone. Living a life that matters occurs when we are passionate about our purposes. The passions we are given are there to meet a need in today’s world. What are your passions? When is the last time you thought about them or spent time developing them?

(but) I once heard a speaker at a conference state that once a person uses the word ‘but’ in a statement, everything before it is irrelevant. The definitions I found for the word ‘but’ are: contrary to expectation, except that or for; in spite of or despite of. So this says to me that in spite of the fact that our purposes are not always easy to reach, because they are so deep within us, we have the capacity to grab a hold of them.

(a man of understanding) To have an understanding is to have the ability to learn, judge and make decisions. We must discern our purposes by taking the time to gain self-knowledge and come to a realization that our purposes were given to meet today’s needs in some way. Comprehending and mastering the skills necessary to achieve the desires we are passionate about must be intentional. It will not simply stumble upon us.

 (draws them out) To draw out our purposes requires a deliberate effort. We must first formulate the purposes by gathering data or evidence about ourselves in order to gain insight into those ambitions.  We must pull out, take or extract thoughts and desires we have hidden deep in our souls for fear of letting others see them or fear of failing at achieving them and mentally create what they would look like if we actually did them. Once we accept the purposes we were created to achieve and begin to act on them accordingly then we will also begin to draw to us ideas that will help us accomplish those desires.

While researching this topic, I came across Think Simple Now by Tina Su and she provides an article titled 15-questions-to-discover-your-personal-mission. It is a step to help get you started if you want to discover your purpose. (I have not reviewed her entire website, but I think these questions are relevant to my discussion.) 

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