What is your why?

I have 3 questions for you.

Q: What gets you up in the morning? Q: What motivates you to do what you do, to get going every day Q: Why are you here?

These were questions Paul (my husband) and I had to ask ourselves when we transitioned from growing our ministry from an embryo to adulthood over the past 20 plus years and then handing it over to the ‘Joshua’s’ we had raised up. The preverbal Moses to Joshua hand over.

We had to ask ourselves, ‘Why are we here…now?’

To us and all who know us, our call has always been clear and easily defined. Showing Christ’s love by being His hands and feet in community by identifying community needs, life skills needs and then working together with community leaders and local families to find solutions in not only seeing their needs met, but also seeing these wonderful people gain empowerment to continue to build momentum and take the reigns towards a greater future for themselves. We have, and still believe in this ministry and feel immensely privileged to have been part of fruit birthed, both spiritually and physically over this time. However, over five years ago God spoke very clearly to Paul and I saying; ‘Don’t waste what you have been given. I want you to now pour out what you have established here across the globe.’

At first I said to the Lord; ‘What Lord, start again in another nation, and then another nation and another? That would take several lifetimes.’ What God was actually saying to us was this; ‘Paul, Deb, all that you have gained, all that you have learnt, all that you have weathered, and all the life lessons you have matured through over this past season, I want you to now pour out to others who are starting out in cross cultural ministry as well as those looking for strategic guidance to move forward in ministry generally. Walk alongside others and pastor, coach, mentor, lead and guide them to see them fulfil the call that I, God have placed on them and to do this in a successful, healthy and fruitful way without burning out.‘

What is our why? Multiplying what God has built in us to pour into others. What a privilege! This is our ‘why’.

What is your why?

The bible tells us in Acts 26:16 (NKJV), ‘But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.‘

I want to say that unless we know our why, why we are rising, why we are standing to our feet and the purpose of our rising and standing, we are not going to intentionally take this verse Acts 26:16 into our spirit and act on it. We will forever be going through this life aimlessly.

I have written a whole sermon on this subject, however for this blog, I will briefly touch on three areas that I have identified in considering the ‘why’ question. Those who know their why, those who have lost their why, and those who don’t believe their why is important.

Those who know their why

Those of you who know your why will get up each morning with your why burning in your spirit. It has nothing to do with how you feel, because you won’t feel great everyday, nor will you sense that fire burning in your spirit continually. More often than not, things won’t be lined up perfectly for your why to be outworked. The reason you stay the path is because God has spoken to you and confirmed to you your purpose, (your why), through His word which anchors you. You wear the mantle of the call, and because of that, you make the choice every day to rise up and walk in it.

What those of you who know their why need to be aware of are the little foxes who try to pull you down and put doubts in your mind. The enemy does not want anyone who knows their call (their why), taking ground and succeeding. It is important to make sure you are walking with others who know their why. Those who will continue to stretch you, encourage you, believe in you, not judge you and want to see you build on your why. Iron sharpens iron. Believe for greater than where you are right now. God’s heart is for ‘more than you can ask or imagine.’ Keep asking Him for all He has for you.

Those who have lost their why

Ask yourself these 2 questions? At what point did I lose my why? What caused me to lose my why? Was it distraction, disappointment, failure, burn out, lack of self-care or possibly just plain old fashion rebellion. Whatever has caused you to lose sight of your why, or how far you have gone from your why, God has not forgotten what He has placed upon you. He has not left you and He still has a plan for your life.  He can mend any path that has been broken. There is no place that you can go from your why, from the purpose of your life, that God is not there. He will draw you back onto the right pathway. Read Psalm 139: 1 – 18. The enemy will tell you that it is too late for your why, but God says it is not too late to recapture your why. The Holy Spirit knows your why. Ask Him and He will remind you of why and He will refuel your passion once again for your why. He is there to guide you and lead you back on track.

For those who don’t believe their why is important

Q Who told you that? Who told you that your why is not important? It was not God. It can only come from three places; other people, the enemy, or you feeding that to yourself. It did not come from God, your creator. God knew what He was doing when He created you with specific spiritual DNA to outwork His purpose in and through your life. The issue for those of you who don’t believe that your why is important is that you have taken your eyes off the path God has carved out for you and found yourself distracted by the path God has carved out for others. It is time to refocus on what God has placed on your life, give thanks for it, then take a second look at what He has place on your life. You will discover how wide, how deep, how long and how rich your own path is. There is still so much to discover. Offer it back to Him and watch what God will do with it.

Today, I want to encourage you to take another look at your why and explore all that God has put on your life. You will be amazed at how much more there is to explore so you can be a blessing to others.

Deb