Today on Pure Purpose, we’re launching into a 30-day devotional of Adventures in Faith. A new post will be available each morning to launch your day with reflection questions, God’s Word, and a personal challenge. Invite your friends, and let’s get started. On your mark, get set, let’s go!

We are surrounded by a great cloud of people whose lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back. (Hebrews 12:1)

Ponder It.

How have you been encouraged by someone else’s life?

How have you looked forward in anticipation with hope?

When you stand in your today and think about the future, what excites you?

 

Receive It.

Today is a fresh day. Threads go through our entire lives. The same sun lights the sky. We live in the same bodies. We see some of the same people and go about familiar routines. Yet in the consistency, there is uncertainty, and with that uncertainty comes possibilities. Even as the same sun peeks over the horizon, it’s refreshing. The light is warm, the colors vibrant, and it gives us hope that today can be a good day. Today, you can make a change. Today, you can choose well. Today, you can reach out. Today, you can seek peace.

 

It’s not going to be a perfect day. You’ll mess up. We all will. We’ll get distracted, waste time, miss an opportunity, choose poorly. But you don’t have to focus on those possibilities. As we stand on the edge of adventure, we can think about all the things that can go wrong, or we can focus on the possibilities of what will go well. (And sometimes, the things that go wrong actually end up being some of the best additions and learning experiences of our journeys!)

 

If we focus on the past or even on the negative of today, we miss out on the hope of tomorrow as well as the hope today holds. Imagine yourself standing on the podium of life. Imagine yourself standing in front of God. Ask Him how you can respond today, in each situation, with each attitude, word, and action, so that you gain confidence to stand in His presence. After all, He gives you all the confidence you need. He trains you every step of the way. You have a choice: focus on your day with fear, regret, guilt, and trepidation, or focus on the possibilities of the adventures and embrace how every experience pours into your “someday” on the podium. Which will it be?

 

Live It.

Stand in a high place—on the top floor of a building, at the top of a flight of stairs, on a hill, or on a chair. (Please be careful.) Look around. Imagine yourself a little closer to God. Ask Him what you need to do today to intentionally grow closer to Him. It might not be something you have to actively “do.” It might be an attitude you need to tweak, sacrifice you need to make, or forgiveness you need to extend. Trust Him. He knows what He’s doing.