A lot of people talk about finding themselves and being fulfilled and happy as a person. We want our lives to mean something and to be able to look at our life without regret or confusion about what it’s all about.
However In the search for self-fulfilment or the quest to find ourselves we can only have feeling good as our primary goal, which at face value may seem like a harmless and even good pursuit.
But when we make self- fulfilment and happiness our goal we can in actual fact limit our potential and development. Many times the things we should do may not feel particularly good at the time, yet it is the right thing to do and seek to be.
Perhaps a better pursuit would be to focus our attention and energies on self-development, where we make the development of our potential and the cultivating of the talents and gifts God has placed in us our goal.
Self – development propels us to a higher level and shifts our focus from what feels good in the short term to what is going to cause us to become the people we were created to be. Interestingly a by-product of making development rather than happiness our goal is that we usually will find fulfilment and long-term benefit, as we progressively become all that we were made to be.
God encourages us to seek after this higher level of living as our goal and teaches us that in, “whatever our hand finds to do, do it with our might.” For, “the soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Proverbs 13:3-5)
A point to remember is that pursuing self-development doesn’t mean we won’t have days where it may all seem too hard or that we won’t struggle with disappointments. But in seeking and trusting God to develop and grow us through every circumstance of our lives we will more often than not find ourselves, and also true happiness, both in the triumphs and in the lessons and strength attained through trials.
To live differently we must think differently, and to be all that God created us to be we are usually going to have to be changed in our thinking. We will only choose to develop and put effort into that which we think is of value or worth it. God says you are worth it!
You have genuine value, gifts, talents and abilities, which He has planted on the inside of you. You are worth the investment, time and effort, so quit comparing yourself to others, or looking at your past failures and choose today to make self-development your goal, knowing that true happiness and fulfilment will follow suit as you consistently take the initiative to grow your potential and step into your destiny and the life Jesus paid with His life to give you.
“A thief (the devil) has only one thing in mind – he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I (Jesus) have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect – life in its fullness until you overflow!” (John 10:10 TPT)
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.“ (Romans 12:1-2 The Message)
Prayer: Lord I want to make the most of the life you have blessed me with, and to make becoming the person you created me to be my goal. Please help me to focus on developing my potential as a person rather than on just feeling good in the short term. I give you my day so that you can guide and direct me into that which will make me truly happy and fulfilled today. In Jesus name Amen.
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