I’ve had some interesting events happen to me within the past couple of weeks that have led me to think about my second act in life and business. I’ve been wondering more and more lately what my purpose is in life. God said in Jer 29:11-12:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
It caused me to reflect on some of the situations that I have been in that have been incredibly unfair. It’s caused me to seriously wonder if maybe He hadn’t gotten around to creating my plan yet.
However, after speaking with my mom (she always brings things back into perspective for me) I realized that the reason I was feeling this way is because I was mixing up what society deems to be my purpose in life with what God’s purpose is for my life.
Society’s purpose for me
- Society’s purpose is to focus on our career, finding a spouse, making a lot of money, buying a big house and having children.
Yet, even if you achieved all the aforementioned, it will still not bring you peace and happiness. In case you don’t believe me, think about how many celebrities you believe are truly happy. Not many.
The majority of people spend their lives chasing waterfalls. They jump into relationships, careers, etc. because this is what society wants you to do. This will instill Satan’s negative traits inside of you in the event that you aren’t able to attain them. Then you’re left wondering, “What’s wrong with me?”In reality, there’s nothing wrong with attaining or not attaining these things.
The real issue is when you place things such as this above God’s plan for your life. If you really want to find out what your purpose is in life, then you need to get in touch with God’s word. We can only obtain the attributes of Christ when we conform to Christ’s likeness. Only in Christ can we have attributes such as love, joy, peace and happiness.
God’s purpose for me
- Our real purpose in life is to grow into Christ-likeness.
When we focus on Christ we can enjoy the abundant life that He came to give us. In other words, Christ came to give us a little bit of heaven while we’re still on earth. The only way we can conform to Christ’s likeness, is to be truthful to everyone we know, be ready and willing to fight whatever battle God requests us to help Him fight. We can only do this by staying properly dressed in our armor.
Once again, our purpose in life is to conform to Christ’s likeness and help others to do the same. In other words, throughout our way of life and God’s word, we are to teach others the truth. Therefore, we are not to go along with people when they are wrong.
We are to firmly tell them the truth even if we must stand alone in the conversation. We are not to lie to people so we can keep their friendship or so that we can be a part of the crowd. God already warned us that we would be persecuted for following Him (1 Pet 4:12). However, if we draw near to Him we will find the much sought after wisdom and peace that will eventually lead us to our purpose.
