The Place to Look for Purpose

I had heard countless sermons and read scores of books and commentaries…Yet despite all of it, I realized that I had genuinely missed the main point…I discovered that I was involved in something much larger and more glorious than I ever dreamed…how to live a christian life was no longer about me and what I could or should do…The needs of human beings became secondary…It all became about God’s ageless desire—a desire that is “from him and through him and to him” (Rom. 11:36)… A sighting of that purpose has the power to deliver us from all the things that do not matter; things that do not give life; things that divide and fracture the body of Christ into pieces.

-Frank Viola, From Eternity to Here

God’s Wants and Needs

Christians, heck humans in general, get caught up a lot in majoring on minors when it comes to how to live a Christian life.  This plays itself out when we think mainly about our wants and needs rather than God’s.  That’s right, God has wants and needs that are bigger than yours.  In fact, He has wants and needs that motivated Him to create in the first place.  The sad thing is, we are rarely taught how to live a Christian life according to that perspective.  Most teaching is focused on how to be a better Christian rather than how to accomplish God’s purpose.

Me-Centered Mentality

We get caught up in a me-centered mentality that distracts us from what God is truly trying to accomplish.  Instead, we worry about our role, our ministry, our purpose, our job.  His eternal purpose goes beyond those.  Rather, all of those should fit into it (Col. 1:16).  Remember, the motivation for creation lies at the heart of God before man fell.  So, it’s beyond salvation and redemption.  This doesn’t diminish them.  It simply puts them in the correct perspective.

If you’re wondering how to find a purpose in life, first dive into God’s purpose for Himself. This will supply you with the lens through which to view everything else.  Unless you’ve got this right, everything else gets skewed, including your reading of the Bible.

God’s Purpose-Driven Life

Yes, we should live a purpose driven life.  But, it should be God’s eternal purpose that is doing the driving with our personal purposes riding in that car.  So, if you don’t have a really good revelation on what that is, you’re likely majoring in missing the point.  We’ll be diving into this more…

Your turn: What’s your perspective on why God created?  In one or two sentences, what do you believe to be His eternal purpose for Himself?

*The next post for this book is here