Our Purpose in Life

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Psalm 86:9-11 says, “ Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.  All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.  For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.  Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”

     There are those times when a person might ask, “Why am I here?”    Things seem to go  on an on and nothing seems to change .Society seems to be getting worse, I am getting older and older each day and my bones hurt, and th eprice of gas is going higher and higher and bananas are more expensive than ever before.  People are hurting and some regard themselves as failures in whatever they are doing in life.  My foot hurts, I am in an assisted living facility for a couple of years as tha is all the funds I have and everything looks like it is gray and dark and nothing more than a big mess.  That is the picture that many have of their life and the reason is that they have forgotten or neer knew in the first place what their purpose was in life.

     One famous catechism begins with the following question.  “What is the chief purpose of man?  Just imagine how the people of this planet would feel if they knew the answer to that question.  The question is one that perhaps all have at one point or another and it is the answer by which we learn our purpose which turns out to be a comfort to our souls.  If we only knew the answer we would be satisfied, or at least we would know what to do to be content while living on this earth.  The above passage is one that underscores the chief purpose of man.  The answer, according to the catechism is, “To know God and to enjoy His presence forever.”  Now, i thought  I should be the best bassoon player in the world, or the best pastor, or a good husband, or a good father and now I find out that my purpose is to know God and to enjoy His presence in my life forever.   You know of course, t hat if I know God and am enjoying His presence in my life every moment, then I will be a good bassoon player, or a good pasor or a good husband, or a good father.  Doing the first point, accomplishes the rest of the points.  When it says that all nations will bow down and worship God, that means all nations, which also means, all people, which also means you and me.  That is and will be our main purpose in life.  Simplicity seems to annoy people.  Something valuable must cost a great deal, or require a lot of work in order to achieve it.  Not so with God.  To know Christ is to know God and that is the first step and then to follow His teaching in all of our lives, i.e., to be His disciples.  Praise God that He gives us purpose.