God’s purpose for you

Is your purpose aligned with God’s purpose?  You cannot answer this until you know what His purpose is.

We have all sorts of ideas about what our purpose in life should be.  We may think that simply setting goals and achieving them is our purpose.  We may think that caring for our families is our main purpose.

We can have the highest and most noble goals in life possible and still miss God's purpose for our lives.

The Lord makes it very clear to us what He desires for us.  He has not left us in the dark on this point.

He has one overarching purpose for each Christian: to form the image of Christ in us.

That is the bedrock of our purpose.  If we are not building on that, making that our main purpose and aim in life, it matters not what else we "accomplish."

The world is never going to applaud our becoming more and more like Jesus.  The world is after its own set of goals, its reason for being, its purpose.  And the ways of the world should not be the ways of the Christian.

When we are born again into Christ, we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into God's glorious Kingdom of light.  And though the world's ways can sometimes appear that they are of the light, if that light is not the light of Christ, it is merely a lesser sort of light, or goodness.

God is good.  He is the only one that is good. (see Mark 10:18)  So it stands to reason that all other "goodness," unless from God's Spirit in us, is not seen as good in God's eyes.

Remember, God cannot look on sin.  And even the best, "goodest" flesh out there is sin to Him.  He can look at Christians because He now sees Christ when He sees us.  It is the great exchange - our lost, sinful selves in exchange for the life of Christ.

We have died with Christ and we have risen with Him.  That is one of the great mysteries of the Christian life.

Therefore, our purpose in life is entirely, or should be entirely, wrapped up in God's purpose for our lives.

All of the parameters of our lives, the good, the bad, and the ugly, when used by the Lord, become His tools to form us into His image.  We see things in His light now which informs all that we do, all that happens to us, and how we view our lives.

If you ask me, Jesus has the harder job!  In order for Him to "present us holy and blameless" before God, He has quite a work to do in us!

Yes, once we are saved we are sealed in Christ and possess His holiness in the form of the Holy Spirit.

But then comes the work!  The working out of our salvation through our devotion to Christ, obedience to Him, our daily choices.  If we think of ourselves as a piece of marble being sculpted by the Artist's hand, then chiseling will be involved!  And chiseling hurts.

Will we "go there" with Christ?  Will we let Him chip away at us until He is formed in us?

If not, then we are not fulfilling our God-given purpose in life.

We can always choose the easy way out, which is much more appealing to the flesh. After all, the earthly rewards may or may not ever come our way for living in God's purpose.  The world does not reward it; quite the contrary.  We will face ridicule, rejection, and persecution for following God's purpose.

This is where long-term vision comes in handy.  We have the goal of heaven in sight and most of our rewards will happen there. 

Can we wait for it?

Can we continue to submit to the Sculptor's chiseling, sanding, and such in the meantime?

There is no greater purpose than God's purpose.  So if we are "all in," then we should be willing to go through anything in order to fulfill God's purpose for our lives.

This whole idea is so opposite of the world's ways, it can really mess with your mind if you are not grounded in the Word, in Christ.

The world wants us to "live for today."  The world wants to be our "oyster."  The world wants us to "live a little" and "get" all we can from life.

Problem is that any happiness or "purpose" we find in this way of living is short-lived, has no real substance, and has no eternal benefit.

Jesus told us that He came to give us life and life to the full.  But the abundance that Jesus refers to here is not the sort of abundance that we normally think about when we think of abundance. Jesus doesn't care all that much, if at all, about earthly treasures.  He told us flat out not to store them up, that they are pretty much a waste of time. (see Matthew 6:19)

The Greek word for life in this verse about the abundant life that Jesus wants to give us is zoe.  Zoe life is spiritual life.  The very life of Christ in us.  Jesus came to give us His life in us!  Wow!

One Bible study source definition says this about the zoe life that Christ wants to give us:

"of the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God"

Another source defines the zoe life this way:

"...referring to the principle of life in the spirit and soul. Distinguished from bios, physical life-of which zoe is the nobler word, expressing all of the highest and best which Christ is and which He gives to the saints. The highest blessedness of the creature."

I don't know about you, but I want the highest blessedness that Jesus offers!

Jesus wants to bless our lives with His life inside us.  God's purpose for us is in our best and highest interest.  

God's purpose for us is to know Him.  God's purpose for us is to let Him form Christ in us.

Will you pursue God and His purpose for you?  Or will you choose your own way?

Oh Lord.  It blows my mind that the Creator of the entire universe can live inside of us via the Holy Spirit.  What a life You have promised us!  Life in You.  Life with You.  Life for You.  That is true abundant living.  Thank You, dear Lord.  Thank You a million times over for Your purpose for our lives.  As hard as it is to have what the world considers a "weird" purpose, may we grasp Your purpose anyway, live it out no matter what, and enjoy the abundant life found only in You.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.