Have you ever felt like you should be doing something for God, but you didn’t know what it was? And the more you thought about it, the more you worried about doing what God wanted you to do, to the point that your overthinking led to feeling stuck. You want to serve God, but you aren’t sure what He wants you to do. You want to be obedient, but you fear making a mistake. You want to live a life of purpose and meaning, but you aren’t sure what that is.

More than anything, you desire a life of meaning, but you are afraid that you will somehow stumble onto the wrong path and end up lost. You want to hear from God, but you second-guess every thought that trots through your mind. If so, we can be friends because I’ve been in this place more than a few times. In fact, I’ve given this condition a name: purpose paralysis. 

Purpose paralysis is Satan’s handiwork.

Confusion is one of the weapons in his arsenal. When we get confused, we overthink, and then we tend to get stuck. And when we are stuck, we tend to do nothing – paralysis. Satan’s favorite Christian is a paralyzed one that doesn’t move because that Christian is ineffective.   

What I’ve come to realize is that this condition has a simple solution – and here it is: MOVE. The Israelites learned this lesson as they were leaving Egypt with Moses. With the Egyptians behind them and the Red Sea in front of them, the Israelites had to decide what they were going to do. God told Moses to high tail it to the Red Sea, raise his staff, and wait for Him to take care of the path ahead of them. Even with all that God had done to free them, the Israelites got stuck in their fear and overthinking. When Moses sees this, he prays to God. Do you remember what God said? He simply said, MOVE. 

Moving is our answer to finding our purpose too.

The purpose of every Christian is to tell people about Jesus and love our neighbor. If nothing else, acting on that purpose is always right. You and I have a more specific purpose that God has hidden away in our hearts, but until that purpose is revealed, you cannot go wrong with finding ways to love your neighbor and sharing the gospel. In fact, those two things may be your only purpose for the season you find yourself in right now. 

As we grow in our faith, our purpose can evolve or change completely and it’s our job to go with God’s flow. Recently, God reminded me that our lives are made up of many seasons (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) and letting go of one season is the only way to usher in the next season and its assignment. This can be scary because old seasons are familiar and new seasons are unknown, but our surrender to Christ depends on our obedience to move when God says to move – even if we don’t know what we are moving into. 

So, how can we serve God in the seasons where our unique purpose isn’t clear, or we are transitioning from one season to the next? The bible tells us that we have a responsibility to care for the poor (Proverbs 21:13), the oppressed (Psalm 82:3-4), the fatherless (Psalm 82:3-4), the orphans (Psalm 82:3-4), widows (James 1:27), and our brothers and sisters in Christ (Galatians 6:10). That leaves a lot of room to serve! 

The size of the service is irrelevant to God, as is (Luke 16:10), the action being seen or acknowledged by another person (Matthew 6:3). Movement is what matters. 

20 Ideas to Live with Purpose and Serve People:

  • Take a meal to someone going through a difficult time 
  • Get together with 2 or 3 people and do a Bible study together 
  • Organize a service project at your church or with other believers 
  • Partner with an organization that provides for children
  • Serve at a soup kitchen
  • Smile at people, hold the door open, be friendly to strangers
  • Include the new person at work, school, church, etc. in lunch or something else 
  • Organize a Saturday women’s or men’s event centered around spiritual or personal growth 
  • Volunteer at a senior center and chat with an elderly person that needs a conversation 
  • Work with a homeless shelter to collect necessities 
  • Start a blog and write about what’s on your heart to help others
  • Get together with a group of men or women and do a book study 
  • Be a social media encourager and share Jesus
  • Volunteer for nursery duty, kids’ ministry, or the youth ministry at your church
  • Hang out with a kid that doesn’t have a dad in his life 
  • Bring groceries or gift cards to a family in need 
  • Mow the lawn of an elderly neighbor
  • If you are handy, volunteer to fix things around the house for a single mom 
  • Take someone out for lunch and show genuine interest in their life
  • Pray for people

Whatever

Matthew 25:40 reminds us, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Whatever is broad and leaves us a lot of room to serve others. So, don’t overthink. You and I can’t mess this up. Be awake and aware throughout the day for opportunities to serve or love on people. 

If you have ideas of ways to serve and love on people, please share them! Leave a comment below, on Facebook, or Instagram. I’d love to hear from you!

P.S. Are you ready to deal with the pain of the past and grow into the disciple God created you to be? Check out my new book Unravel and get started today.