Encouraging - Purpose

You have a far more strategic role to play than just filling a church pew and helping to meet the annual budget. God has an assignment designed precisely for you – and this is part of the abundant life you so earnestly crave. As you give yourself to God’s special assignment, you will pray more and with a deeper sense of passion. You will hunger for a greater understanding of the Bible and how it applies to your life. You will regularly sense the help of the Holy Spirit, since God always works with those who give themselves to work for him…If, by contrast, we sadly reduce our relationship with God to a preoccupation with “bless me, bless me,” we will only be frustrated. The more we reach for happiness in life, the more it eludes us.

Jim Cymbala, You Were Made for More: The Life You Have, the Life God Wants You to Have (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI: 2008), 26.