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Volume. XXII, No. 10 Life is empty without Gods WillHave you ever asked yourself what is my purpose, why am I here, why was I born, and why was I created? I think most people at some point throughout the course of their lives have asked questions such as these. I know I have. People have long tried to answer these questions through their own reasoning, seldom realizing that God has already revealed the answers through His Word.
People are now self-centred instead of God centred. Self-centeredness manifests itself in two fundamental forms:
· Pride – primary concern is with one’s own position and desires rather than with the will and glory of God.
· Unbelief – questioning God’s priority and authority on all things.
Man’s attempts to answer these questions, however, have produced some mystifying speculations that have added to our confusion about the future.
Why do people still have so many wrong opinions of their future?
The reasons may be linked to the following:
Firstly, the idolatrous religions introduced thousands of years ago are still deeply entrenched and remained so popular in our culture.
Secondly, man has long sought to explain his place in the world by devising mythical answers. As a result most people of the ancient cultures looked to physical objects in the sky for their answers. They worshiped the sun, moon, planets and stars. They invented warrior gods and terrible beasts that came and went in regular cycles.
In this way they attributed their problems and weaknesses to the gods they themselves had invented. They searched for meaning, but they based their conclusions on wrong assumptions and traditions.
God warns us not to follow superstitious practices like looking to created objects in the sky as sources of revelation in Deuteronomy 4:19: “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them and serve them…” Instead, we should look directly to God for true knowledge and divine revelation and not to His creations.
How do we discover our life’s purpose?
Colossians 1:16 says “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or power: all things were created by him, and for him:”
This verse identifies who we are. We are made for God and God was not made for us. So life is not about using and asking God to help us with what we feel is our purpose. Rather life is about letting God guide us and use us for His purpose.
God is all wise and all powerful, and would not do anything without a high purpose. SinceHe made each of us, it follows that He must have had a purpose in doing so. The most important thing in life, therefore, is to discover and seek to follow God’s great plan for our lives. Thus, our life is not about our personal gratification, our professions or jobs, our goals, or our dreams.
To find our true purpose in life, we need to stop looking within ourselves to find the answer. Instead, we need to ask God, our creator, what our purpose is. God has revealed His Will through the Bible where it explains why we are alive, how life works, what to avoid, and what we can expect in the future. We will find that God, in His Word, has provided a reasonable Biblical answer to every question of real importance in our search for His Will in our life. Trying another path to obtain this understanding is at best only a short term satisfaction.
We have all experienced life’s unexpected happenings. Ecclesiastes 9:11 tells us “…the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong….” This reflected on the fact that man is not the master of his destiny, as he so often thinks he is.
Life is filled with unpredictable experiences and events. A strong, healthy man may drop dead at any time. A rising
young athlete may contract a crippling disease and a person of means may suddenly lose everything in a bad deal.
What can we learn from this? Not to trust our own strength, our own wisdom, or our own skill, but to depend on the Lord who alone knows the end from the beginning.
One of the many exciting aspects of walking with God is that we don’t know what’s going to happen next. At times we may be uncomfortable with the twists and turns, but God reserves the right to lead us wherever He wants.
In James 4:14, James described life as: “….It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Therefore, it is important that we make the most of our opportunities to honour God, serve others, and proclaim Christ.
Let us ask God to “..teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12).
Have you discovered your life’s purpose yet? To help you to know God’s plan for you, it is important that you take some steps of response to God’s offer.
1st – Begin reading the Bible, God’s Word, for guidance and strength.
2nd – Pray daily as you learn to talk to God and gain His strength.
3rd – Obey God as you learn what He desires for you to do in each area of your life.
Dn Yaw Chiew Tan
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