To know that God has a purpose in everything

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3

When God created man and woman He wants them to live according to His purpose. God has a purpose; therefore there is purpose in life. What seems to be a monotonous or chaotic series of events in history are not meaningless at all. There is a purpose to every event and everything is moving to accomplish a desired end. The only way one will understand that purpose and meaning in life is when they come to know and have the relationship with the Creator and Source of that purpose. It is God who works through the events in the life of every individual to accomplish His one great and lasting purpose. In order for you to find that purpose, you don’t just stumble into it by doing something that you think you could do on your own and with a wanton disregard of God. You are compelled to act and do something but it has to be within the context of your relationship with God. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes” (Psalm 37:7). Jesus declared, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The Apostle Paul

said that God's purpose, in effect, is to conform those people that trusted Him to His image. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose...to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:28-29). This is God’s declaration of what life is all about. God's purpose is to have a people, his own children, who will love him no matter what they go through in life. The sad thing is that too often there are Christians who stumble through life barely giving God a nod and then a crisis hits and the strong relationship they have with God is missing. Or worse yet, imagine reaching the end of your life and suddenly realizing how you have wandered for years running after the trinkets of the world. As a child of God, you don’t want to be in that situation at the end of your life. Instead realize that you are here in this world to live your life according to His purpose. As Paul said, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:12-14).

Blessings,

Noel De Guzman Westside Baptist Church Los Angeles, CA