Purpose Study Bible 349: Calling with Character

As Ezra began his purpose work of teaching the Law while restoring Jerusalem, he encountered an unexpected problem. The men, especially the leaders and officials, were marrying local women in disobedience to God's law:

When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice (Ezra 9:3-4).

It was assumed then, and still applies now, that if you're going to effectively express your creative purpose, you must live a holy life as the Bible defines holy. Otherwise, the very things you're building can be weakened or even undone during times of testing. Jesus warned not to build a house on the sand, so to speak, or our work will be washed away during times of testing.

While you're expressing your creative purpose and developing your gifts, are you paying attention to God's expectations for holiness? Are you tending to the condition of your heart, and seeking forgiveness and the Spirit's assistance to transform into the person God wants you to be?

Here is how Ezra responded to his people's failure: "Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God and prayed" (Ezra 9:5-6). Ezra's reaction reminds us that sin should grieve us, not because we seek perfection, but because we know how destructive it can be to our relationship with God and to the work He has given us to do.

May God grant us the humility to respond to sin as Ezra did, so we may build lives and ministries that endure and are not undone by our neglect toward God's call to holiness.