PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE
Understandimng and following God's master plan for our lives
It All Starts with God For everything, absolutely everything,
above and below, visible and invisible, . . .
everything got started in him and
finds its purpose in him.
Colossians 1:16 (Msg)
Unless you assume a God, the question
of life’s purpose is meaningless.
----Bertrand Russell, atheist.
It’s not about you.
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal
fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far
greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams
and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this
planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose
and for his purpose.
The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for
thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the
wrong starting point—ourselves. We ask self-centered questions
like What do I want to be? What should
I do with my life? What
are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future? But
focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose. The Bible says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s
life is in his power.” 1
Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars
tell you, you won’t discover your life’s meaning by looking
within yourself. You’ve probably
tried that already. You didn’t create
yourself, so there is no way you
can tell yourself what you were
created for! If I handed you an
invention you had never seen
before, you wouldn’t know its
purpose, and the invention itself wouldn’t be able to tell you
either. Only the creator or the owner’s manual could reveal its
purpose.
I once got lost in the mountains. When I stopped to ask for
directions to the campsite, I was told, “You can’t get there from
here. You must start from the other side of the mountain!” In the
same way, you cannot arrive at your life’s purpose by starting with
a focus on yourself. You must begin with God, your Creator. You
exist only because God wills that you exist. You were made by
God and for God—and until you understand that, life will never
make sense. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our
identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our
destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.
Many people try to use God for their own self-actualization,
but that is a reversal of nature and is doomed to failure. You
were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God
use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own
purpose. The Bible says, “Obsession with self in these matters is a
dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a
spacious, free life.” 2
I have read many books that suggest ways to discover the
purpose of my life. All of them could be classified as “self-help”
books because they approach the subject from a self-centered viewpoint. Self-help books, even Christian ones, usually offer the
same predictable steps to finding your life’s purpose: Consider
your dreams. Clarify your values. Set some goals. Figure out what
you are good at. Aim high. Go for it! Be disciplined. Believe you
can achieve your goals. Involve others. Never give up.
Of course, these recommendations often lead to great success.
You can usually succeed in reaching a goal if you put your mind
to it. But being successful and fulfilling your life’s purpose are not
at all the same issue! You could reach all your personal goals,
becoming a raving success by the world’s standard, and still miss
the purposes for which God created you. You need more than
self-help advice. The Bible says, “Self-help is no help at all. Self-
sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.” 3
This is not a self-help book. It is not about finding the right
career, achieving your dreams, or planning your life. It is not about
how to cram more activities into an overloaded schedule. Actually,
it will teach you how to do less in life—by focusing on what
matters most. It is about becoming what God created you to be.
How, then, do you discover the purpose you were created for?
You have only two options. Your first option is speculation. This is
what most people choose. They conjecture, they guess, they
theorize. When people say, “I’ve
always thought life is . . . ,” they
mean, “This is the best guess I can
come up with.”
For thousands of years, brilliant
philosophers have discussed and
speculated about the meaning of
life. Philosophy is an important
subject and has its uses, but when it comes to determining the
purpose of life, even the wisest philosophers are just guessing.
Dr. Hugh Moorhead, a philosophy professor at Northeastern
Illinois University, once wrote to 250 of the best-known
philosophers, scientists, writers, and intellectuals in the world, asking them, “What is the meaning of life?” He then published
their responses in a book. Some offered their best guesses, some
admitted that they just made up a purpose for life, and others
were honest enough to say they were clueless. In fact, a number
of famous intellectuals asked Professor Moorhead to write back
and tell them if he discovered the purpose of life!4
Fortunately, there is an alternative to speculation about the
meaning and purpose of life. It’s revelation. We can turn to what
God has revealed about life in his Word. The easiest way to
discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the creator of it.
The same is true for discovering your life’s purpose: Ask God.
God has not left us in the dark to wonder and guess. He has
clearly revealed his five purposes for our lives through the Bible.
It is our Owner’s Manual, explaining why we are alive, how life
works, what to avoid, and what to expect in the future. It explains
what no self-help or philosophy book could know. The Bible says,
“God’s wisdom . . . goes deep into the interior of his purposes. . . . It’s
not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what
God determined as the way to bring out his best in us.” 5
God is not just the starting point of your life; he is
the source of it. To discover your purpose in life you
must turn to God’s Word, not the world’s wisdom.
You must build your life on eternal truths, not pop
psychology, success-motivation, or inspirational
stories. The Bible says, “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are
and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and
got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious
living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything
and everyone.” 6 This verse gives us three insights into your
purpose.
1. You discover your identity and purpose through a
relationship with Jesus Christ. If you don’t have such a
relationship, I will later explain how to begin one.
2. God was thinking of you long before you ever thought
about him. His purpose for your life predates your
conception. He planned it before you
existed, without your input! You may
choose your career, your spouse, your
hobbies, and many other parts of
your life, but you don’t get to choose
your purpose.
3. The purpose of your life fits into a much
larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for
eternity. That’s what this book is about.
Andrei Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under an atheistic
Communist regime. But God got his attention one dreary day.
He recalls, “In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in
Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) I was overcome with a despair so
great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future
entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase
appeared: Without God life makes no sense. Repeating it in
astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got
out of the metro and walked into God’s light.”7
You may have felt in the dark about your purpose in life.
Congratulations, you’re about to walk into the light.
Day One
Thinking about My Purpose
Point to Ponder: It’s not about me.
Verse to Remember: “Everything got started in him
and finds its purpose in him.” Colossians 1:16b (Msg)
Question to Consider: In spite of all the advertising
around me, how can I remind myself that life is really
about living for God, not myself?
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