What on Earth am I here for?

The Purpose Driven Life

Day1 - It All Starts with God

For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, Kings, kingdoms, rulers, authorities. Eeverything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.(Colossians1:16 Msg)

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.

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.”(Romans8:6)

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.

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.

“The Wisdom we speak of is the secret wisdom of God, which was hidden in former times, though He made it for our benefit before the world begin”(1Cornithians2:6)

"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."(Ephesians2:6)

Day2 - You Are Not an Accident

I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born. (Isaiah44:2a CEV)

While there are illegitimate parents, there are no illegitimate children. Many children are unplanned by their parents, but they are not unplanned by God. God's purpose took into account human error, and even sin.

The Bible tells us, "God is love." It doesn't say God has love. He is love! Love is the essence of God's character. There is perfect love in the fellowship of the Trinity, so God didn't need to create you. He wasn't lonely. But he wanted to make you in order to express his love.

 God says, "I have carried you since you were born; I have taken care of you from your birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you."(Isaiah46:3-4)

Day3 - What Drives Your Life?

We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it. God's purpose is not limited by your past. He turned a murderer named Moses into a leader and a coward named Gideon into a courageous hero, and he can do amazing things with the rest of your life too. God specializes in giving people a fresh start. "What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven!“(Psalm31:1)

Fear is a self-imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love. 

The Bible says, "Well formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life fear of death, fear of judgment is one not yet fully formed in love."(1John4:18)

Nothing matters more than knowing God's purposes for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing God’s Purposes

There are five great benefits of living a purpose-driven life:

Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life. Hope is as essential to your life as air and water. You need hope to cope. "I know what I am planning for you.... I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future."(Jeremiah29:11)

Knowing your purpose simplifies your life. It defines what you do and what you don't do. Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which aren't. "You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.”(Isaiah26:3 TEV)

Knowing your purpose focuses your life. It concentrates your effort and energy on what's important. There is nothing quite as potent as a focused life, one lived on purpose. The men and women who have made the greatest difference in history were the most focused. For instance, the apostle Paul almost single-handedly spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. His secret was a focused life. He said, "I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”(Philippians3:13)

Knowing your purpose motivates your life. Purpose always produces passion.

Knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity. Living to create an earthly legacy is a short-sighted goal. A wiser use of time is to build an eternal legacy. You weren't put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.

One day you will stand before God, and he will do an audit of your life, a final exam, before you enter eternity. God wants us to pass this test, so he has given us the questions in advance. From the Bible we can surmise that God will ask us two crucial questions:

First, "What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?" God won't ask about your religious background or doctrinal views. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and trust him? Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."(John14:6)

Second, "What did you do with what I gave you?" What did you do with your life-all the gifts, talents, opportunities, energy, relationships, and resources God gave you? Did you spend them on yourself, or did you use them for the purposes God made you for?"

Preparing you for these two questions is the goal of this book. The first question will determine where you spend eternity. The second question will determine what you do in eternity.

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Day4 - Made to Last Forever

God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart. (Ecclesiastes3:11 NLT)

Life on earth is just the dress rehearsal before the real production. You will spend far more time on the other side of death-in eternity-than you will here. This life is preparation for the next.

The reason we feel we should live forever is that God wired our brains with that desire!

While life on earth offers many choices, eternity offers only two: heaven or hell. Your relationship to God on earth will determine your relationship to him in eternity. If you learn to love and trust God's Son, Jesus, you will be invited to spend the rest of eternity with him. On the other hand, if you reject his love, forgiveness, and salvation, you will spend eternity apart from God forever.

We know that right now God is preparing an eternal home for us. In heaven we will be reunited with loved ones who are believers, released from all pain and suffering, rewarded for our faithfulness on earth, and reassigned to do work that we will enjoy doing. We will enjoy unbroken fellowship with God, and he will enjoy us for an unlimited, endless forever. One day Jesus will say, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world."(Matthew25:34)

God has a purpose for your life on earth, but it doesn't end here. His plan involves far more than the few decades you will spend on this planet. It's more than "the opportunity of a lifetime" God offers you an opportunity beyond your lifetime. The Bible says, "God's plans endure forever,  his purposes last eternally."(Psalm33:11)

Just as the nine months you spent in your mother's womb were not an end in themselves but preparation for life, so this life is preparation for the next. If you have a relationship with God through Jesus, you don't need to fear death. It is the door to eternity. It will be the last hour of your time on earth, but it won't be the last of you. Rather than being the end of your life, it will be your birthday into eternal life. The Bible says, "This world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven."(Hebrew13:14)

Measured against eternity, our time on earth is just a blink of an eye, but the consequences of it will last forever. The deeds of this life are the destiny of the next. We should be "realizing that every moment we spend in these earthly bodies is time spent away from our eternal home in heaven with Jesus.”(2Corinthisans5:6)

 Years ago a popular slogan encouraged people to live each day as "the first day of the rest of your life." Actually, it would be wiser to live each day as if it were the last day of your life.

Day5 - Seeing Life from God's View

What is your Life?(James4:14b NIV)

The way you see your life shapes your life. How you define life determines your destiny.

Your perspective will influence how you invest your time, spend your money, use your talents, and value your relationships.

"Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God.”(Romans12:2)

The Bible offers three metaphors that teach us God's view of life: Life is a test, life is a trust, and life is a temporary assignment. These ideas are the foundation of purpose-driven living. We will look at the first two in this chapter and the third one in the next.

Life on earth is a Test

This life metaphor is seen in stories throughout the Bible. God continually tests people's character, faith, obedience, love, integrity, and loyalty. Words like trials, temptations, refining, and testing occur more than 200 times in the Bible. God tested Abraham by asking him to offer his son Isaac. God tested Jacob when he had to work extra years to earn Rachel as his wife.

Adam and Eve failed their test in the Garden of Eden, and David failed his tests from God on several occasions. But the Bible also gives us many examples of people who passed a great test, such as Joseph, Ruth, Esther, and Daniel.

Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test. You are always being tested. God constantly watches your response to people, problems, success, conflict, illness, disappointment, and even the weather!

A very important test is how you act when you can't feel God's presence in your life. Sometimes God intentionally draws back, and we don't sense his closeness. A king named Hezekiah experienced this test. The Bible says, "God withdrew from Hezekiah in order to test him and to see what was really in his heart."(Chronicles33:31)

Hezekiah had enjoyed a close fellowship with God, but at a crucial point in his life God left him alone to test his character, to reveal a weakness, and to prepare him for more responsibility.

When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life. Even the smallest incident has significance for your character development.

The good news is that God wants you to pass the tests of life, so he never allows the tests you face to be greater than the grace he gives you to handle them.

The Bible says, "God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm, at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out."(1Corinthians10:13)

Life on earth is Trust.

This is the second biblical metaphor of life. Our time on earth and our energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships, and resources are all gifts from God that he has entrusted to our care and management. We are stewards of whatever God gives us. This concept of stewardship begins with the recognition that God is the owner of everything and everyone on earth. The Bible says, "The world and all that is in it belong to the LORD, the earth and all who live on it are his."(Psalm24:1)

We never really own anything during our brief stay on earth. God just loans the earth to us while we're here. It was God's property before you arrived, and God will loan it to someone else after you die. You just get to enjoy it for a while.

The Bible says, "God blessed them, and said, Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge."(Genesis1:28)

The first job God gave humans was to manage and take care of God's stuff on earth.

This role has never been rescinded. It is a part of our purpose today. Everything we enjoy is to be treated as a trust that God has placed in our hands.

At the end of your life on earth you will be evaluated and rewarded according to how well you handled what God entrusted to you. That means everything you do, even simple daily chores, has eternal implications. If you treat everything as a trust, God promises three rewards in eternity.

First, you will be given God's affirmation: He will say, "Good job! Well done!"

Next, you will receive a promotion and be given greater responsibility in eternity, "I will put you in charge of many things."

Then you will be honored with a celebration: "Come and share your Master's happiness."

The Bible says, "If you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?"(Luke16:11)

This is a very important truth. God says there is a direct relationship between how I use my money and the quality of my spiritual life.

Jesus said, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”(Luke12:48)

Life is a test and a trust, and the more God gives you, the more responsible he expects you to be.

Day6 - Life is a Temporary Assignment

LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away(Psalm 39:4 NLT)

To make the best use of your life, you must never forget two truths: First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, earth is only a temporary residence. You won't be here long, so don't get too attached. Ask God to help you see life on earth as he sees it.

Repeatedly the Bible compares life on earth to temporarily living in a foreign country. This is not your permanent home or final destination. You're just passing through, just visiting earth. The Bible uses terms like alien, pilgrim, foreigner, stranger, visitor, and traveler to describe our brief stay on earth.

Your identity is in eternity, and your homeland is heaven. When you grasp this truth, you will stop worrying about "having it all" on earth.

Only as we remember that life is a test, a trust, and a temporary assignment will the appeal of these things lose their grip on our lives. We are preparing for something even better.

"The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever"(2Corinthians4:18)

Realizing that life on earth is just a temporary assignment should radically alter your values.

Eternal values, not temporal ones, should become the deciding factors for your decisions.

As C. S. Lewis observed, “All that is not eternal is eternally useless.”

Paul was faithful, yet he ended up in prison. John the Baptist was faithful, but he was beheaded. Millions of faithful people have been martyred, have lost everything, or have come to the end of life with nothing to show for it. But the end of life is not the end!

In God's eyes, the greatest heroes of faith are not those who achieve prosperity, success, and power in this life, but those who treat this life as a temporary assignment and serve faithfully, expecting their promised reward in eternity.

The Bible says this about God's Hall of Fame: "All these great people died in faith. They did not get the things that God promised his people, but they saw them coming far in the future and were glad. They said they were like visitors and strangers on earth.... they were waiting for a better country, a heavenly country. So God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.”(Hebrews11:13, 16)

 Your time on earth is not the complete story of your life. You must wait until heaven for the rest of the chapters. It takes faith to live on earth as a foreigner.

When life gets tough, when you're overwhelmed with doubt, or when you wonder if living for Christ is worth the effort, remember that you are not home yet.

At death you won't leave home-you'll go home.

Day7 - The Reason for Everything

Everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory.(Romans11:36 LB)

It's all for him. The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God.

God's glory is best seen in Jesus Christ. He, the Light of the world, illuminates God's nature. Because of Jesus, we are no longer in the dark about what God is really like. The Bible says, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory."(Hebrews1:3)             

 Jesus came to earth so we could fully understand God's glory. "The Word became human and lived among us. We saw his glory ... a glory full of grace and truth."(John1:14)

HOW CAN I BRING GLORY TO GOD?

Jesus told the Father, "I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to do.”(John17:4)  Jesus honored God by fulfilling his purpose on earth.

We honor God the same way. When anything in creation fulfills its purpose, it brings glory to God. Birds bring glory to God by flying, chirping, nesting, and doing other bird-like activities that God intended. Even the lowly ant brings glory to God when it fulfills the purpose it was created for. God made ants to be ants, and he made you to be you. St. Irenaeus said, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive!"

They can be summarized in God's five purposes for your life to bring glory to God.

We bring God glory by worshiping him.

Worship is our first responsibility to God. We worship God by enjoying him. C. S. Lewis said, "In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him." God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving, and delight, not duty.

Worship is far more than praising, singing, and praying to God. Worship is a lifestyle of enjoying God, loving him, and giving ourselves to be used for his purposes. When you use your life for God's glory, everything you do can become an act of worship. The Bible says, "Use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.”(Romans6:13)

We bring God glory by loving other believers.

When you were born again, you became a part of God's family. Following Christ is not just a matter of believing; it also includes belonging and learning to love the family of God. John wrote, "Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life."(1John3:14)

 Paul said, "Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you, then God will be glorified."(Romans15:7)

It is your responsibility to learn how to love as God does, because God is love, and it honors him. Jesus said, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."(John13:34,35)

We bring God glory by becoming like Christ.

Once we are born into God's family, he wants us to grow to spiritual maturity. What does that look like? Spiritual maturity is becoming like Jesus in the way we think, feel, and act. The more you develop Christlike character, the more you will bring glory to God.

The Bible says, "As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more."(2Corinthians3:18)

God gave you a new life and a new nature when you accepted Christ. Now, for the rest of your life on earth, God wants to continue the process of changing your character. The Bible says, "May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation-those good things that are produced in your life by Jesus Christ for this will bring much glory and praise to God."(Philippians1:11)

We bring God glory by serving others with our gifts.

Each of us was uniquely designed by God with talents, gifts, skills, and abilities. The way you're "wired" is not an accident. God didn't give you your abilities for selfish purposes. They were given to benefit others, just as others were given abilities for your benefit. The Bible says, "God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you.... Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory.”(1Peter4:10,11)

We bring God glory by telling others about him.

God doesn't want his love and purposes kept a secret. Once we know the truth, he expects us to share it with others. This is a great privilege-introducing others to Jesus, helping them discover their purpose, and preparing them for their eternal destiny. The Bible says, "As God's grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory."(2Corinthians4:15 NLT)

WHAT WILL YOU LIVE FOR?

The Bible says, "Anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and Eternal.”(John12:25 MSG)

It's time to settle this issue. Who are you going to live for yourself or God? You may hesitate, wondering whether you will have strength to live for God. Don't worry. God will give you what you need if you will just make the choice to live for him.

The Bible says, "Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.”(2Peter1:3 MSG)

Right now, God is inviting you to live for his glory by fulfilling the purposes he made you for. It's really the only way to live. Everything else is just existing.

First, believe. Believe God loves you and made you for his purposes. Believe you're not an accident. Believe you were made to live forever. Believe God has chosen you to have a relationship with Jesus, who died on the cross for you. Believe that no matter what you've done, God wants to forgive you.

Second, receive. Receive Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior. Receive his forgiveness for your sins. Receive his Spirit, who will give you the power to fulfill your life purpose. The Bible says, "Whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever!"(John3:36 MSG)

Wherever you are reading this, I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity: Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you." Go ahead.

If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations!

Welcome to the family of God!

You are now ready to discover and start living God's purpose for your life. I urge you to tell someone about it. You're going to need support.