What Is the Purpose of My Life?Намуна

Our purpose is to demonstrate God’s love to one another and to care for God’s creation. But at the centre of our purpose is God Himself. Jesus tells us that the most important thing for us to do with our lives is to love God. Worshipping God is our purpose, and loving people and caring for the world—and all the other ways God teaches us to live—can be done as acts of love received by Him as worship.

When Jesus tells us to love one another, He adds that by this His Father is glorified. To glorify something is to increase its reputation. Now, God is already perfect and has no room for improvement, but a reputation isn’t always an accurate reflection of character. A charismatic leader might have a good reputation that doesn’t reflect his selfishness and dishonesty. Another person might have a bad reputation that they don’t deserve.

God doesn’t have the reputation He deserves. There are many who express anger and hatred towards Him; others are just indifferent, as if God’s like a boring pair of socks at Christmas. Even those who do love God still fail to fully recognise how majestic and perfect He is. God doesn’t have the glory He deserves.

But this doesn’t affect His self-esteem. God isn’t like us: sullen when our hard work is unrecognised or craving love and attention. And we wouldn’t be like that if we were perfect too. But when we fail to recognise the full beauty of something, we enjoy it less.

In a culture where truth and justice matter, we should desire that the worth of all things is properly appreciated, including that which is most worthy: God Himself.

Until we live in a world where all things are appreciated in an appropriate way, there will continue to be injustice. Something will be lacking in our knowledge of what’s good, in the justness of what we value and in our enjoyment of what’s good.

The Bible offers us hope for a world that’s characterised by the knowledge of the glory of God, just as waters cover the sea. It’s Jesus who makes this happen, becoming flesh so that the image of the invisible God can be displayed with perfection, and giving us the Holy Spirit so that our knowledge and experience of God can one day be made perfect.

How can these ideas give you hope for experiencing life in a more fulfilling way? How can you invest your life today in giving glory to God?

Thanks for completing this plan with us! If you want to keep thinking about this question and other tough questions, check out the Discover Jesus podcast. If you enjoyed this plan you might also enjoy James: Wisdom From Above.