A Personal Mission Statement pt.1

A Disciple’s Life’s Accomplishments

 

One of the popular concepts in personal development today is drafting a personal mission statement.  For some this is a list of specific things they want to accomplish in their personal and professional lives during their lifetime.  For others it is a one or two sentence summary of their overall aspirations and the means by which they will seek to reach them. 

 

The truth is that each of us has a personal mission statement whether we have intentionally developed one or not because the actions, reactions and choices of each day are controlled by what we have decided we want to do and how we will do it, i.e. a personal mission statement .  The sum of the decisions we make reveal what our priorities are and the true nature of our character. 

 

Until we encounter the love of God in our lives and enter into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ, the overriding theme of our mission statement is a focus on self.  The change which Jesus Christ desires to bring about in our lives, which is so dramatic that He likened it to being born again, is to remove ourselves from the center of attention and instead focus our lives on loving God, serving Him and each other.

 

A Disciple’s Mission Statement

 

One of the best examples of a disciple’s personal mission statement is found in Romans 12:

 

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

Our mission and purpose should be to each day present all of our lives to Jesus Christ as a humble sacrifice of love for all He has done for us and commit to drawing closer each step of the way to the example of Jesus Christ; transforming our thoughts, actions and priorities by the renewing of our minds, instead of being conformed to the value structure of this world. 

 

One of the challenges we have in accepting God’s unmerited favor and forgiveness resulting in salvation and the commitment of our lives to God is that we do not want to accept the fact that we cannot do anything to earn or achieve salvation, God has already done it all.

 

This same attitude that causes us to delay accepting Christ into our lives appears again to try and keep us from moving on from a babe in Christ to a spiritually mature disciple.