One of the most important questions people ask every day is, "Why am I here?" Such a question can be hard to answer. Many people spend most of their lives looking for purpose, for a reason to exist. So many people don't know the reason for their being here, which is why we see so much despair, even among those who appear to be at the top of society. But each person has a purpose. What's more, that purpose is more than just to get the newest thing, job, toy, or vacation. There's a mission and purpose for your life, but first you need to know Who planned it for you. Let's talk about Him, then we'll move on to what our purpose is, and some of the things that try to keep us from it.
First, before we can achieve any degree of purpose whatsoever, we need to know the Architect of all purpose. His name is God, and He sent His Son to die for your sins. Perhaps you don't believe in Him. But you must understand that you can't have purpose without Jesus. Don't believe me? Let me ask you, what do you currently have to live for? What's the most important thing in your life? Your family, your job, your weekends? All those things are unstable. The Bible says we can't tell what life will bring. James 4:13-14 says it very well. "Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (NKJV) Like it or not, there's nothing in your life that is a guarantee. But don't lose hope. Just because you can't see the future doesn't mean that God can't either. He planned the future. Check this verse out. God says in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Even the rough things are in God's control. Take a look at the story of Joseph. He lived during the time that the Nation of Israel was just a nomadic family. He was betrayed by his brothers and then was sold by them as a slave to some Midianite traders in the day. It got worse. After he was taken to Egypt, he was approached by a married woman who wanted to commit adultery with him. He refused, and so she accused him of trying to do the same to her. So he was thrown in prison, and stayed there a while. If anyone should have been complaining, it would have been him. But instead He trusted God. Later he was made second in command to Pharaoh in the country, and saved countless people from a devastating famine, including the same brothers who sold him in the first place. Read the full story here.
Joseph had a purpose. You do too, and the first step to getting it done is knowing the God Who made it for you. If you know him, good. If not, let me give you a brief summary of what you need to know (the Bible tells it better, so I'd read that instead, but this is here if you're in a hurry). In the beginning, God made everything. It wasn't a big bang or a meteor. It was God. He made us as well, starting with one man and one woman. He gave them the world's abundance, and told them to take care of it. He also forbid them just one thing, the fruit from a tree in the middle of the garden. That was all. And you know what? They blew Him off. They did the one thing the Bible shows us they weren't supposed to do. From that moment, mankind entered into a sinful state that makes each of us completely unworthy of God and only worthy of an eternity in Hell. And from then on, mankind got steadily worse. That's why our society suffers it's ills. That's why we have drug abuse and murder and movies with foul language. We've never been the same since those first two humans messed things up. But God did not give up on us. He loved us even though we rebelled against Him. Indeed, He had a plan for redeeming us from the mess we were in to begin with.
Fast-forward to a few thousand years later. At that time, a man named Jesus walked the earth. He had the most important purpose on earth. He came to save the rest of sinful suffering humanity and redeem us and earn forgiveness for us. How? He died on a wooden cross in the midst of a jeering crowd. He was condemned by those who were sinful, while He was utterly perfect and had done nothing wrong in His life. Jesus, the Son of God, fully man and fully God, gave His blood to save us from our sins. His shedding of His sinless blood gives us the opportunity to be cleansed from our sins, our wrongdoings. But that's not all. Three days after He came off the cross and was buried, He rose from the dead, and is alive even now! We can now have a free life in heaven with Him Read the gospel of Luke to see a much more detailed account of the story. A short summary of the good news can be found in the following three verses: John 3:16, Romans 10:9 and Hebrews 1:3. Here they are.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (NKJV)
Romans 10:9
"That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (NIV 1984)
Hebrews 1:3
"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." (NIV 1984)
Pretty awesome, huh?
So if you want to know Jesus, you simply need to ask Him. Just talk to God, like you would to a person. Admit to God that you're a sinner, tell Him that you believe that He sent His Son Jesus, that He is God, that He died, and rose again, and confess your faith in Him (this basically means telling Him that you are relying on Him for your salvation and for everything else). Ask Him into your heart. If you do this, and mean it, good. Congratulations on becoming part of God's adopted family!
Now that you know the Maker of our purpose, now it's time to look at what our purpose is.
Why are we here? The answer is simple. To love God and glorify Him. To do good with our lives, and do what He says, whatever it is. In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon tells us that "I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God." (Ecclesiastes 3:10-13 NKJV) Each of us just needs to enjoy our life, and live it for God. That's pretty simple, but why not? God doesn't try to complicate things. While it's true that God has a unique mission for us, that's the general mission for each of us. The unique mission varies from person to person, but God will reveal it to us in it's proper time.
Unfortunately, there are things that try to keep us from reaching our mission. Each one is rough, but it can be beat. While I don't claim to know all the things that try to stop us, I'm ready to outline three.
1. Apathy. Apathy is an incredibly crippling disease. More people die of apathy than you would believe. Once you are apathetic, you become immobilized. Apathy is defined by Dictionary.com as "absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement." I have a different definition. Apathy is the inability to accomplish anything due to the absence of any kind of motivation. When we suffer from apathy, we can't accomplish the purpose we've been given, because we have no motivation. We shut off all emotion, and with it the driving force behind all we do. It cripples our ability by desensitizing us and robbing us of feeling. Isn't it strange how rocks don't do anything on their own? You're thinking, "No. What kind of question is that?" Well, bear with me. Rocks do things, but only when someone else pushes them to. How many of us are like rocks? We need to push ourselves, not have someone else doing all the pushing. We can't allow depression, despair, or pain to desensitize us out of accomplishing anything. Apathy does nothing but waste time and break hearts. If you've been living in apathy, it's time to get up! You're loved by Jesus, who has a purpose for you, and you can't do it if you won't move! Get up and go do something. It doesn't have to be big, just something. Cure apathy with action.
2. Pride. Pride is crippling, because it leads us to believe we're all that. When that happens, we're less likely to take help or advice, and way more likely to fall flat on our face. Proverbs 16:18 is pretty clear when it says "Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall." We will fail at anything we attempt with pride. I know a few stories of prideful failures. Take a look at the Bible, in 2 Chronicles 26, where we read about Judah's king Uzziah, who made a very prideful mistake. You see, in His day the priests of the Lord were supposed to make the sacrifices and burn incense. This wasn't the king's job. But Uzziah tried to burn incense on God's altar. We pick up the story in verse 16:
"But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. So Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord—valiant men. And they withstood King Uzziah, and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You shall have no honor from the Lord God.” Then Uzziah became furious; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there, on his forehead, he was leprous; so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed he also hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him. King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. Then Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land." (2 Chronicles 26:16-21 NKJV)
Can you imagine a more devastating failure? This was not God's purpose for the king, yet in His pride He tried to do something that was most certainly wrong, and He paid a great penalty for it. May we do all that is in our power not to allow our pride to get the best of our conscience, and get in the way of God's Word. Don't let pride undermine your purpose.
3. The devil. As usual, the enemy does whatever he can to sabotage you. That applies to your purpose as well. He'll try to distract you with anything he can to keep you from focusing on the One who gives you purpose. That's why the advice in Hebrews 12:2 is so necessary for us to follow. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (NIV 1984) Never let the enemy distract you. Don't let him steal your joy with his petty arguments and stupid distractions. The more you focus on Jesus, the less chance the devil has to do his work and keep you from doing your purpose. James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded." (NKJV) Jesus needs to be our focus, and we must be on our guard against the enemy. We need to read the Bible, and pray often, and always fix our focus on Jesus, period.
In summary, each of us is here for a reason, one which involves glorifying God and living our lives for Him. And while it's true that many things may try to keep us from achieving our purpose, each of them can be overcome with the help of the Holy Spirit, and the Bible. Our God is an awesome God who loves us and will never fail us. We just need to accept Him and live for Him, by loving Him and loving others the way He loves us, with an unconditional unchanging love. God has a great plan for you. Keep your heart supple and soft before Him, and see what He does.
(NKJV) Means New King James Version
(NIV 1984) Means New International Version 1984)
apathy. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved June 10, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apathy
First, before we can achieve any degree of purpose whatsoever, we need to know the Architect of all purpose. His name is God, and He sent His Son to die for your sins. Perhaps you don't believe in Him. But you must understand that you can't have purpose without Jesus. Don't believe me? Let me ask you, what do you currently have to live for? What's the most important thing in your life? Your family, your job, your weekends? All those things are unstable. The Bible says we can't tell what life will bring. James 4:13-14 says it very well. "Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (NKJV) Like it or not, there's nothing in your life that is a guarantee. But don't lose hope. Just because you can't see the future doesn't mean that God can't either. He planned the future. Check this verse out. God says in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Even the rough things are in God's control. Take a look at the story of Joseph. He lived during the time that the Nation of Israel was just a nomadic family. He was betrayed by his brothers and then was sold by them as a slave to some Midianite traders in the day. It got worse. After he was taken to Egypt, he was approached by a married woman who wanted to commit adultery with him. He refused, and so she accused him of trying to do the same to her. So he was thrown in prison, and stayed there a while. If anyone should have been complaining, it would have been him. But instead He trusted God. Later he was made second in command to Pharaoh in the country, and saved countless people from a devastating famine, including the same brothers who sold him in the first place. Read the full story here.
Joseph had a purpose. You do too, and the first step to getting it done is knowing the God Who made it for you. If you know him, good. If not, let me give you a brief summary of what you need to know (the Bible tells it better, so I'd read that instead, but this is here if you're in a hurry). In the beginning, God made everything. It wasn't a big bang or a meteor. It was God. He made us as well, starting with one man and one woman. He gave them the world's abundance, and told them to take care of it. He also forbid them just one thing, the fruit from a tree in the middle of the garden. That was all. And you know what? They blew Him off. They did the one thing the Bible shows us they weren't supposed to do. From that moment, mankind entered into a sinful state that makes each of us completely unworthy of God and only worthy of an eternity in Hell. And from then on, mankind got steadily worse. That's why our society suffers it's ills. That's why we have drug abuse and murder and movies with foul language. We've never been the same since those first two humans messed things up. But God did not give up on us. He loved us even though we rebelled against Him. Indeed, He had a plan for redeeming us from the mess we were in to begin with.
Fast-forward to a few thousand years later. At that time, a man named Jesus walked the earth. He had the most important purpose on earth. He came to save the rest of sinful suffering humanity and redeem us and earn forgiveness for us. How? He died on a wooden cross in the midst of a jeering crowd. He was condemned by those who were sinful, while He was utterly perfect and had done nothing wrong in His life. Jesus, the Son of God, fully man and fully God, gave His blood to save us from our sins. His shedding of His sinless blood gives us the opportunity to be cleansed from our sins, our wrongdoings. But that's not all. Three days after He came off the cross and was buried, He rose from the dead, and is alive even now! We can now have a free life in heaven with Him Read the gospel of Luke to see a much more detailed account of the story. A short summary of the good news can be found in the following three verses: John 3:16, Romans 10:9 and Hebrews 1:3. Here they are.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (NKJV)
Romans 10:9
"That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (NIV 1984)
Hebrews 1:3
"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." (NIV 1984)
Pretty awesome, huh?
So if you want to know Jesus, you simply need to ask Him. Just talk to God, like you would to a person. Admit to God that you're a sinner, tell Him that you believe that He sent His Son Jesus, that He is God, that He died, and rose again, and confess your faith in Him (this basically means telling Him that you are relying on Him for your salvation and for everything else). Ask Him into your heart. If you do this, and mean it, good. Congratulations on becoming part of God's adopted family!
Now that you know the Maker of our purpose, now it's time to look at what our purpose is.
Why are we here? The answer is simple. To love God and glorify Him. To do good with our lives, and do what He says, whatever it is. In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon tells us that "I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God." (Ecclesiastes 3:10-13 NKJV) Each of us just needs to enjoy our life, and live it for God. That's pretty simple, but why not? God doesn't try to complicate things. While it's true that God has a unique mission for us, that's the general mission for each of us. The unique mission varies from person to person, but God will reveal it to us in it's proper time.
Unfortunately, there are things that try to keep us from reaching our mission. Each one is rough, but it can be beat. While I don't claim to know all the things that try to stop us, I'm ready to outline three.
1. Apathy. Apathy is an incredibly crippling disease. More people die of apathy than you would believe. Once you are apathetic, you become immobilized. Apathy is defined by Dictionary.com as "absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement." I have a different definition. Apathy is the inability to accomplish anything due to the absence of any kind of motivation. When we suffer from apathy, we can't accomplish the purpose we've been given, because we have no motivation. We shut off all emotion, and with it the driving force behind all we do. It cripples our ability by desensitizing us and robbing us of feeling. Isn't it strange how rocks don't do anything on their own? You're thinking, "No. What kind of question is that?" Well, bear with me. Rocks do things, but only when someone else pushes them to. How many of us are like rocks? We need to push ourselves, not have someone else doing all the pushing. We can't allow depression, despair, or pain to desensitize us out of accomplishing anything. Apathy does nothing but waste time and break hearts. If you've been living in apathy, it's time to get up! You're loved by Jesus, who has a purpose for you, and you can't do it if you won't move! Get up and go do something. It doesn't have to be big, just something. Cure apathy with action.
2. Pride. Pride is crippling, because it leads us to believe we're all that. When that happens, we're less likely to take help or advice, and way more likely to fall flat on our face. Proverbs 16:18 is pretty clear when it says "Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall." We will fail at anything we attempt with pride. I know a few stories of prideful failures. Take a look at the Bible, in 2 Chronicles 26, where we read about Judah's king Uzziah, who made a very prideful mistake. You see, in His day the priests of the Lord were supposed to make the sacrifices and burn incense. This wasn't the king's job. But Uzziah tried to burn incense on God's altar. We pick up the story in verse 16:
"But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. So Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord—valiant men. And they withstood King Uzziah, and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You shall have no honor from the Lord God.” Then Uzziah became furious; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there, on his forehead, he was leprous; so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed he also hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him. King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. Then Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land." (2 Chronicles 26:16-21 NKJV)
Can you imagine a more devastating failure? This was not God's purpose for the king, yet in His pride He tried to do something that was most certainly wrong, and He paid a great penalty for it. May we do all that is in our power not to allow our pride to get the best of our conscience, and get in the way of God's Word. Don't let pride undermine your purpose.
3. The devil. As usual, the enemy does whatever he can to sabotage you. That applies to your purpose as well. He'll try to distract you with anything he can to keep you from focusing on the One who gives you purpose. That's why the advice in Hebrews 12:2 is so necessary for us to follow. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (NIV 1984) Never let the enemy distract you. Don't let him steal your joy with his petty arguments and stupid distractions. The more you focus on Jesus, the less chance the devil has to do his work and keep you from doing your purpose. James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded." (NKJV) Jesus needs to be our focus, and we must be on our guard against the enemy. We need to read the Bible, and pray often, and always fix our focus on Jesus, period.
In summary, each of us is here for a reason, one which involves glorifying God and living our lives for Him. And while it's true that many things may try to keep us from achieving our purpose, each of them can be overcome with the help of the Holy Spirit, and the Bible. Our God is an awesome God who loves us and will never fail us. We just need to accept Him and live for Him, by loving Him and loving others the way He loves us, with an unconditional unchanging love. God has a great plan for you. Keep your heart supple and soft before Him, and see what He does.
(NKJV) Means New King James Version
(NIV 1984) Means New International Version 1984)
apathy. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved June 10, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apathy
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