Our Purpose for Living

If happiness and fulfillment were based only upon having our needs met then there should be a lot more happy people in this world. However, we all know of people who are financially well off – yet are not happy. They are living lives of stress and worry.

I heard of one husband who said to his wife, “Why are you always worrying? It doesn’t do any good?” His wife said, “Oh yes it does. Ninety percent of the things I worry about never happen, so it must be working.” Sound familiar?

As I mentioned in my last post, we worry about whether our needs will be met but there might be a greater worry that Jesus eludes to in Matthew 6:33 - a life lived without purpose. Like Solomon, many of today's Christians have sampled everything the world has to offer and come up empty. They desire a life filled with purpose and meaning, but are looking in the wrong places.

Jesus says that our physical needs will be taken care of as our spiritual purpose is fixed. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness . . . then all these things will be added to us. The word first gives the thought of that which is before, prominent and best. The children of God are wandering around searching for meaning and purpose and the whole time, God is saying, "I am your purpose. I am your meaning. I am what is best." You cannot have a greater purpose than living for His Kingdom and righteousness.

So what does it mean to seek His Kingdom? It is to recognize God's reign and live with a passion of bringing people into God's family. Seeking His righteousness means to look for in hopes of obtaining. It is not saying that we will attain God's level of righteousness, but God has called us to be holy as He is holy.

The Lord wants us to focus on the spiritual purpose He has designed for us and when we do . . . some astounding things will happen.

• God will meet our physical needs.
• We'll live a life of fulfillment since we now have a purpose to live for.
  
• There will be a peace that comes from knowing that God is pleased with us, because we have made His priorities our priorities.

God's blessings are always on the pathway of service. They almost never come when we live only for ourselves. Live for the King and His Kingdom.

CAP