It all starts with God

Bienhome Muivah *

'For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him' (Col. 1:16).
"Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless"
Bertrand Russel
It's not about you and me.

The purpose of our life is far greater than our own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. If we want to know why we are placed on this planet, we must begin with God. We were born by "His purpose and for His purpose". The purpose of God in our life is greater than our family, our career, or even our wildest dreams and ambitions.

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 our 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".

Contrary to what many popular books, movies and seminars tell you, you won't discover your life's meaning by looking within yourself. We didn't not create ourselves what we were created for! If I handed you an invention you had never seen before, you would not know its purpose, and the invention itself couldn't be able to tell you either. Only the creator or the owner's manual could reveal its purpose.

We cannot arrive at our life's purpose by stating with a focus on ourselves. We must begin with God, our Creator. We were made by God and for God-and until we 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. We were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use us for His purposes, not we using Him, for our 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".

Being successful and fulfilling our life's purpose are not at all the same issue! We could reach all our personal goals, becoming a raving success by the world's standard, and still miss the purposes for which God created us. We need more than self-help advice. The Bible says, "Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way. Our way to finding ourselves.

How, then, do we discover (your true self) the purpose we were created for? We have only two options.

Our first option is Speculation. This is what most people choose. They conjecture, they guess, they theorize when people say, "I have always thought life is … they mean," This is the best guess I can come up with.

For 1000 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. Fortunately, there is an alternative to speculation about the meaning and purpose of life.

Its 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 our life's purpose: Ask God!

God has not left us in the dark to wonder and guess. He has clearly revealed His purposes of our lives through the Bible.

It (Christ) is our Owner's Manual, explaining why we are alive, how life works, what to avoid, and what to expect in the future.

We are not an accident!

Our life is no fluke of nature. Our birth was no mistake or mishap. Our parents may not have planned us, but God did. Our race and nationality are no accident. God left no detail to chance. Nothing in our life is arbitrary. It's all for His purpose.

God is not haphazard. He planned it all with great precision. The more physicists, biologists and other scientists learn about the universe, the better we understand how it is uniquely suited for our existence, custom-made with the exact specifications that make human life possible.

The Bible says, "God is Love". He is Love! Love is the essence of God's character. There is perfect love in the fellowship of the Trinity. If there is no God, we would all be accident", the result of astronomical random chance in the universe.

There is a God who made us for a reason, and, and our life has profound meaning. We discover that meaning or significance (Purpose) only when we make God the reference point of our lives.

The poem by Russel Kelfer sums it up:
You are who you are for a reason
You're part of an intricate plan
You are precious and perfect unique design.
Called God's special woman or man.
Cool Sunday!