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Does God Have a Purpose for Your Life?
Finding the purpose of your life is very important. It is the key to a meaningful and fulfilled life. It opens up your eyes to a world of opportunities where you can use your gifts and talents to benefit humanity.
Some people have found their life purpose and are already living it. Others are yet to figure out the purpose of their lives or don't even care to know.
Do you desire to know your life purpose? Are you looking for the one thing that can put your life's purpose in perspective? Do you ask yourself questions like, "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" "What my ultimate purpose in life?" "How do I know God's purpose for my life? Discovering these questions' answers will set you up for success and make you better understand the world around you.
Asking these questions reveals that you crave something that will bring intrinsic and permanent fulfillment to your heart. There's something within you that screams, "There is certainly more to this life's miseries than just going through the motions each day!" You will never be at peace until you catch this missing link.
In your quest for this missing link, you fill your life with people thinking you can derive happiness from their company. You share your greatest fears, worries, and secrets with people you trust with the hope that they will offer you solutions but instead, they break your heart. Some of these friends even end up soiling your good name. You are left disappointed and realize you can't trust people.
You then seek meaning in material possessions, career, family, money, travel, music, outdoor activities, pets, hobbies, and so on, but these too leave you distraught and empty. You read countless self-help books, watch instructional videos, and attend motivational seminars hoping to find your life purpose, but still, the meaning and purpose of your life elude you. Finally, you turn to self-destructive vices like drug and substance abuse, but these too leave you miserable.
You go back where you started, and the question which remains is, how do you find your life purpose?
According to the Journal of Positive Psychology, life purpose "is essentially about the future-oriented aims and goals that give direction to life."
The Success Magazine describes life purpose as "the point at which your talents, skills, abilities, and gifts intersect with a void or a need in the world around you."
The above two statements agree that finding your life purpose is vital as it gives you a sense of direction. This gift is what drives you to deliver and attract success. Your life purpose is a gift to the world. It is a gift that will impact those around you and the world at large.
Understanding God's purpose for your life will change how you think, act, and even pray. So, the quest for your life purpose should absorb your time and energy.
How Can You Find Your Life Purpose?
The key to finding your life purpose is in the Bible. The word of God teaches that your life originated with God (Genesis 2:7). It is God who created life. So, life then can only derive its meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in God. No job, person, or thing can make your life more meaningful apart from God.
According to the prophet Isaiah, God created man for a purpose:
"Even every one that is called by My name: For I have created him for My glory; I have formed him; yea, I have made him" (Isaiah 43:6,7).
God created you for His glory, and you find your true worth and purpose in Him. Your plans aren't plans until you acknowledge God, for He is the one who fulfills them.
One respected theologian put it this way:
"Our lives are restless until they find rest in You." — Augustine of Hippo
Yes, your life is restless until you find the Creator. You are restless until you find one who is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).
What Does It Mean to "Glorify God"?
According to Desiring God, a Christian blog, glorifying God means,
"Feeling, thinking, and acting in ways that reflect his greatness." It follows then glorifying God is living a life of greatness. It is living a life that magnifies God in our feelings, thoughts, and actions." To gain more insight into this subject, we must first dig a little deeper into Isaiah's background in chapter 43 for clues.
For example, the text in question talks of children of Israel as "a light for the nations" (Isaiah 42:6). The "nations" referred to are the surrounding Canaanite nations. Each Canaanite tribe had an assortment of deities to which they prayed. The Canaanites had gods for all seasons and occasions. They had harvest gods, household gods, fertility gods, temple gods, and city patron gods.
The Canaanite worship experiences revolved around the shrines they had built at strategic places in honor of their gods. They stationed these shrines in elevated or "high places" on the mountain tops, hills, and valleys where they offered sacrifices, including human sacrifices. They celebrated and glorified these fertility gods.
What Does It Mean to Be, "A Light to the Nations?"
Despite their moral fall and spiritual darkness, God set apart the nation of Israel as "a light to the nations" to "glorify" Him.
The children of Israel were to magnify Yahweh far above all the Canaanite deities. Yahweh was to reign supreme in their everyday activities. It is only by living a righteous life - a life that glorifies God - were they to become "a light for the nations." In turn, God would respond to their faith-living by showering them with blessings both spiritually and materially. God desired that their lifestyles would draw the surrounding nations to the true worship of Yahweh. So, Israel was a nation with a mission - a mission to glorify God.
Is God Limited Geographically?
Glorifying God is not limited to the tribe and nation of Israel. The truth is the whole universe exists to glorify God. The Bible declares that all the created order exists to glorify God.
For example, the Psalmist says that the heavens glorify God:
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1).
The beasts of the field give glory to God:
"The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people" (Isaiah 43:20).
The Psalmist calls on every living thing to glorify God:
"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6).
And we are called to glorify God in everything you do:
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).
So the above Bible verses reveal:
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The beast of the field gives God glory.
Everything that has breath (every living thing) glorify God.
And we are to glorify God in whatever we do. So, it is true that God created everything for His glory and pleasure.
Set Apart for God's Glory
Just like Israel of old, God has chosen and set you apart for His glory. God has a purpose for your life. You don't live for yourselves; you live for God.
God created and redeemed you to feel, think, and act in ways that make Him supreme in your life. God made you for Himself and His pleasure.
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure, they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
Your life must pattern and exhibit the greatness and goodness of God. Your actions must reveal who God is and what He is doing in our lives. You must always seek God's will and direction in matters of life - whether eating or drinking or doing anything (1Cor 10:31).
How then are you to exhibit God's glory in your life? Not by works of the flesh but works of faith (works that emanate from faith) that God prepared for us in Christ:
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).
You ask, "Does God have a purpose for my life?" Yes, God has a purpose for your life. The Bible teaches that God created you for His pleasure to "declare His praise" (Isaiah 43:21). It follows then that God's glory is the purpose of your life. God created you to reflect His loving character in your thought pattern, motive, and action. To excel in other areas of your life, God must occupy the first place in everything you do.
Remember:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6, ESV)
Amen
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Read Next:
12 Encouraging Bible Verses about Prayer for Healing and Restoration
How to Grow Stronger in Your Faith
The Return to Normalcy - God's Normal
No Wooden Cross For Us To Carry (Thoughts on the Righteousness of God)
What Are the Deep Things of God? Find Out Here
Here is a list of suggested books on finding God's purpose for your life:
The Blessing of Adversity: Finding Your God-given Purpose in Life's Troubles by Barry C. Black
Do you feel like God has abandoned you? Do you feel like you are drowning through life's storms? Are you wondering how to anticipate, encounter, and grow in adversity?
US Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black in this book shows you how you can turn your adversity into a blessing. And how the refining fires prepare you for your God-given purpose in life.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand God's purpose for his or her life.
God's Answers to Life's Difficult Questions (Living with Purpose) by Rick Warren
Are there difficult questions you ask about God and life?
Rick Warren, in this book, shows that God is concerned with all our questions. He takes you through Biblical characters' difficult experiences to help you understand how you can overcome your own challenges. At the end of each chapter, he gives you clear and actionable answers to apply in your daily life.
I recommend this book for your morning or evening meditation time.
The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life by Os Guinness.
Do you need a new way of thinking about life? Do you want to lead a meaningful and dedicated life for the glory of God?
In this book, Os Guinness gives you some thought-provoking and spirit-stirring insights about the call of God in your life. The insights will embolden, empower, and liberate you to live a life of purpose - glorifying God.
I recommend this book for your personal spiritual growth library.
