You've made it...Welcome to Week 2 of the #30DayHusbandFast! How was Week 1 for you? Go on be honest...tough? Challenging? Fun? A walk in the proverbial spiritual park? Well I personally am praying that it was helpful, transformative and a tad bit challenging so that those spiritual fires are lit!
If you want to continue looking over some of the topics of the first week over the next few days, weeks or for the duration of the fast - be my guest. The weekly themes, daily prayer guidelines, suggested devotionals and readings are ultimately there to inspire direction, but please feel free to switch it up if the Lord is really speaking to you about an area.
But if you're down for another round, it's Week Two of the #30DayHusbandFast, and I hope you are as excited as I am to start this new week.
Week Two – Purpose
One of the many unique elements of Christianity is the belief that every single person has a purpose. Everyone’s life was created to be meaningful. But the general topic of ‘purpose’ can either cause a feeling of trepidation or a feeling of contentment as you may be working out your purpose/ living out your purpose/ or no idea of your purpose. Guess what? That’s ok, hopefully this week will be transformative for you within.
I came across a great summary here when it come to defining 'purpose'. It breaks down purpose, calling, assignment, which I tend to combine under the umbrella of purpose – so sorry if the below text may be a little bit difficult to comprehend. If so let me know and I can re-write to clarify.
Purpose (like I feel many of these topics are) is a huge topic, because we have to really take a moment to assess what we are doing in our lives, and most importantly what are our lives doing for the kingdom. The reality is, as Christians we have a collective purpose (Matt 28: 16-end) to go out evangelising about Christ in order to make disciples of all nations – for the kingdom. We are to physically speak to people about/ and live out our lives as representatives of Christ wherever we are – for the kingdom. But we also have an individual purpose which should benefit, you guessed it – the kingdom. Purpose is a topic I love for various reasons (blog articles pending ;-)) but I think the best way to simplify it is through these questions:
What are you doing?
How does this glorify God?
How are people seeing Christ in the way you live?
The above can be expressed within your career, hobby, passions, skillset/abilities, business, church activities, community and so many areas others - but most importantly (and also quite simply) it has to be benefit the kingdom, and that is sometimes more tricky to work out and understand. Do you have to get up, leave your job and work as a missionary in a remote area (which is a scenario I don’t know why many people jump to, but they always do)? No, Maybe, Yes - it depends on what God is speaking to you about that (I personally love Ibiza so if anyone feels called there, let me know!). Your purpose may be expressed as a missionary (Amen), it may also be expressed serving on a Team at Church, or landing a senior role in a Fortune 500 company, when it comes to God the possibilities are endless but it’s important to figure this out.
Especially when it comes to marriage, as you and your Husband will each have an individual purpose, and your partnership to a considerable degree will require those purposes coming together – ultimately to benefit the kingdom. Now, that may mean coming together to do certain things, for example if you have a purpose that involves young people one of you may have a day job in this field, the other may be a youth mentor at Church – you can bounce off each other with ideas/discussions to use collectively or in your individual areas who knows? But I strongly recommend taking time to figure out what your individual purpose is so that you don’t get ‘purpose hijacked’. All too often, generally, when a person doesn’t know their dreams, it can be quite easy to jump on somebody else’s dream, only to work out sometime down the line, actually this isn’t it. Likewise, with purpose, you don’t want to be in a position where you or your Husband are unsure about what your individual purpose is. You don’t want to come together in a beautiful partnership then one of your purposes becomes the others you tag along only to find out that when this purpose is being lived out, actually this isn’t for you.
For example, if you know your purpose involves healing and working in an international capacity/moving around a lot, a) you may marry someone who also clearly has this purpose b) someone who has a different purpose but it can work alongside this and they can travel internationally or c) someone who has no idea, says great me too initially and then a few months later reveals that they hate travelling, unless it’s for a holiday. #AwkwardMuch doesn’t cut it.
Me personally, my purpose is in a leading and teaching capacity. I have skills when it comes to teaching/helping people better apply the Bible to their lives. That’s something I do as a Sunday School Teacher, Connect Group Leader and potentially could lead to other opportunities. I’m also exploring this purpose in a context outside of faith, in my passions to do with sustainable fashion. I’m finding that my approach to how I go about this is being shaped by my purpose. Therefore, when it comes to this topic and my prayers for my future Husband, I am praying that his purpose is able to align with mine, but in what capacity I’m leaving that up to the Lord to let me know. Does he have to be into sustainable fashion and be a Sunday School teacher too? No, and that’s fine. But if God says ‘Well Actually…’ I’m here for it.
In essence purpose is a deep topic, and during this time as much as you may be praying for your future Husband I encourage you to pray for yourself, as a future wife, on this topic as well so as to lead out your amazingly beautiful life purposefully fulfilled.
The daily guidelines below aren’t exhaustive, but just a general guideline on topics that are to do with purpose. But by all means, take out, add in, swap around what you feel like when it comes to this topic. You may want to spend more than 1 day on a subject – go right ahead. The reality is, purpose shapes our life, so please feel free to focus on that as much as you wish.
Suggested Youversion Bible Plans / Bible Chapters
The Call of God – 3 Day devotional that explores how to listen to God’s voice and work out the call He has for your life
Purpose Passion and Potential – 3 Day devotional exploring how our relationship with Jesus feeds into our purpose, passion and potential and provides practical suggestions to better explore these/live these out.
What To Do When You Don’t Love Your Job – 4 Day devotional which, does what it says on the tin. I joke/I don’t. It discusses how best to deal with a job we aren’t currently happy in, from a Christian perspective. Having personally been in a job I really didn't love, if you resonate with not being happy in your current job/career, I strongly recommend checking this out.
#MADEFOR: Discovering The Purpose Planted Inside of You – 5 Day devotional which helps you, yes discover your God given purpose.
Bezalel: Exploring Your Creative Calling – 5 Day devotional which is one for the creatives, or potentially that creative future Husband of yours ;-). Focusing on developing your creative /artistic calling.
Find Purpose and Passion In Your Daily Work – looks into how you can explore and live out your faith in your day to day lives, with a focus more so when it comes to the workplace
In Addition to the Devotionals or Alternatively if you'd rather not do the devotionals here are some Suggested Bible Chapters/Verses to read over the 7 Days
Proverbs 16: 1-4, 9
Psalm 32: 8-11
Psalm 37
Isaiah 43: 1-7
Ephesians 5
Check out Day Eight here!
If for any reason you are jumping into this fast - well, hello there - great to have you on board, I strongly suggest checking out the #30DayHusbandFast intro blog here and also the FAQ's which breaks down certain aspects, questions of the Fast which will help making this post easier to digest. It's best to start this fast from Week 1 as well, so to ease you into the fast.
