What are our accomplishments? Are we accomplishing someone else’s mission or our own? If someone else is selecting our mission, what are we achieving in our lives? Our education major is not selected by us anymore but is dictated by the market demand or maybe our college guidelines. Our jobs have no relevance to our studies. Seeing this trend some might have a question in their minds if they are actually accomplishing the mission for their life?

These chaotic conditions prevail in our lives because we let others fix our life’s mission, and never venture to have our own mission. When a chore belongs to someone else, then we seldom try to understand it. Do we know whether we have accomplished it or assumed ourselves as fulfilled? Our assumption of completing a mission depends on our notionally fixed targets.

Ultimate Mission

Whenever we accomplish one mission, another one soon follows. But there is an ultimate mission given to every human, and when we achieve that, nothing but the experience of the true peace and joy remain. God has assigned each one of us a task to be completed in our lifetime so that we may enter into eternity. Yet, we fool ourselves and finish halfway, thinking that we have achieved the purpose of our lives counting the blessings that we have received. The Word of God accomplishes the purpose of God in our lives. It reveals to us His purpose and teaches us to cooperate with God.

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:11

We all know that the Word became flesh (John 1:14) to save us from sin. There is a purpose of God in sending His Son to this earth. When did Jesus accomplish the mission of God? Was it when He did miracles, healed the sick, and cast out the demons, that He completed the mission of God, or was it when He had resurrected from the dead?

The Process

We know that God sends forth His word and heals us (Psalms 107:20). We do expect His word should miraculously heal us. Often our expectations turn into frustration because we would like to receive healing without going through the process. In this attempt, either we receive the healing temporarily or do not receive it at all. We should be aware of the targets and goals to receive holistic and permanent results. How do we learn and adhere to the process? Job found this process and declared his findings in the following verse.

But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

Job 23:10

During the short span of our lives, God prepares us to become eligible to live with Him forever. In this training period, the devil tries to fool us by labelling the teachings of God as stringent punishments for our sins. Looking upon God from this angle generates hatred towards Him. The devil did this to Job’s wife as she started hating God and even persuaded Job to do the same. Once we start hating God, we feel empty. So, we try to make everyone we know hate God in order to gather support and to feel secure. By doing this, inadvertently, we join the mission of fallen angels. What we must do is that we should come to God immediately when the world starts to despise us rather than join in with them.

A Case Study

When Joseph was small, he saw a dream that predicted his supremacy over his father and brothers. Driven by jealousy, the brothers of Joseph plotted to kill him and eventually sold him to the Ishmaelites. Concerning the fulfilment of Joseph’s dream, the bible says,

He sent a man before them—
Joseph—who was sold as a slave.
They hurt his feet with fetters,
He was laid in irons.
Until the time that His word came to pass,
The word of the LORD tested him.

Psalms 105:17-19

For a crime that he did not commit, Joseph was imprisoned. In prison, Joseph helped the servants of the king by revealing their dreams and asked one of them to bring up his name to the king after they were released. But he forgot to take the name of Joseph to the ears of the King. With all these untoward incidents, Joseph never lost hope in the dream that God had shown him. He forgot all the hurts and enmity of his brothers (Genesis 41:51) and moved forward to accomplish the mission for which God had sent him to Egypt.

Joseph did not worry about his father and brothers because he knew they would come to him and bow down before him. Lamenting over our past becomes a hurdle in fulfilling God’s mission. Forgetting our hurt is possible only when we forget the people who caused it. We have to forget our enemies, believing that God will forgive them and save them, and should always look forward to meeting them in His Kingdom.

The Accomplishment

When did the dream of Joseph come to pass? Most of us assume that it was when Pharaoh made him the Prime Minister of the entire region of Egypt. Or perhaps when his brothers bowed down before him. But it was when Joseph revealed himself to his wicked brothers and forgave them is when his mission got accomplished. He forgave them because he was well aware of the plan of God, and he did not blame his brothers for what they did. He took it as part of God’s plan in his life. Because of our unforgiving nature, we fail to understand the plans of God concerning our lives.

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

Genesis 50:20

Grooming us to become mature enough to forgive our enemies is the purpose of God in our lives. Job, Joseph, and Jesus forgave their enemies to accomplish the mission of God in their respective lives.

The Application

We do not entertain strangers who are actually in need. We help people only when our name is recognized. While dealing with our enemies, we retaliate, or when they deal with us viciously, we lose our hearts and try to take revenge. We ask people to pray for our peace of mind and protection.

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Matthew 5:44-45

We have ample opportunities to accomplish the mission of God in our lives as we come across enemies, betrayers, backstabbers, and deceivers. Our best friends turn out to be our worst enemies. We may be wondering why people were against us when we did not harm them. God asks us to go the extra mile to love our enemies. The secret is that God wants to make us mature enough to love our enemies. We will make God happy when we identify our sins as our worst enemy and call our enemies our friends instead of vice-versa. When God accomplishes His mission in our lives, we will become eligible to dwell with Him forever.