26 August 2010

Much has been said and written about your purpose in life. In summary, there are two groups of people searching for their purpose in life. There are Christians whose purpose is defined by their relationship with Jesus, and there are those people in the secular world that will spend their lifetime trying to find what that purpose is.

Since our focus for this devotional is on the Christian purpose of life, we will not spend a great deal of time looking into their search for purpose for those who believe they have evolved from primordial goo, or “star stuff” because as the facts show, if evolution is true you have no purpose for living except to stay alive as long as you can. While staying alive is a worthy goal for anyone, it hardly has defines “purpose” when speaking about the meaning of life.

For some Christians the search in itself is what defines them. I submit that the search cannot be what defines you. Never giving up or never quitting is not what defines you. Sure these characters can bring a focus to the look of one’s character, but what defines a person must be far more than that. I’m ‘trying’. I’m ‘working on it’. I’m ‘looking’ are not characteristics I want to be known for. And do not settle any questions.

Some of you have taken a forty-day journey to figure out what that purpose really is. Others have been pushed by ‘prophets’ / ‘seers’ , church leaders and friends in the faith on making sure you know what your ‘gift’ is so that you can then figure out what God’s purpose is for you.

Bunk.

While most the traveling ‘prophets’ are charlatans that the Apostles warned us about, and your church leaders and friends probably have the best of intension for you, you do not need to know your ‘gift’, you do not need to spend forty-days trying to figure out your purpose, because God has already told us what it is.

Live to glorify God.

That’s it. That’s your purpose. You may choose or be called to do so in a plethora of different ways, but no matter what you do, you must do so to glorify God, for this IS your purpose in life.

As a believer we ultimately answer to God for all things. That being the case, why not use scriptures’ urging to live a holy and righteous life in service of God? We have been bought with a price. Our life is no longer our own. We have been called to glorify God – why not apply this biblical purpose for our lives to everything we do!?

We are encouraged to glorify God in unity, and with our words.
Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Romans 15:5-6]

We are told that there are people who have rejected God and/or are fallen away, and we have been told why:
“…because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” [Romans 1:21]

There are many other references and verses that support the same idea. And why should this be strange to us. God is simply encouraging us to do something that should be a natural reaction to a full understanding of our place in Christ. We are not our own, and we owe Him everything! To glorify Him for His work, and for the gifts that He has given us (freedom, peace, joy, salvation, equal inheritance, a heavenly homer and eternal existence with Him just to name a few) seems to be the least we can do, and more importantly, it should be something we desire to do!

Understanding how much we owe God, having a grasp of the depth of our depravity without Him, and getting just a nugget of truth of the penalty for our sin we that has been removed from us should blow us away, stop us in our tracks and have us fall to our knees in constant homage and thanks to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who have made this possible.

Glorifying God should come to us as a natural extension of our salvation and relationship in Him. It should be our individual purpose, and it should be our purpose to cause this glorification of our savior to grow and accelerate in our lives. It should always come first, it should always be foremost in our minds, and active in our talk and walk.

May all the glory be His.

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