First Baptist Church

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What is the Purpose of Life?

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Someone shared the following article with me this morning and I thought it was perfect and worth sharing with everyone. Unfortunately, its author is not cited, so I will list it as anonymous.

In a nutshell, life is a preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop (and so is yours), and that will be the end of my body – but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity (and more). This is the warm-up act or the dress rehearsal.

God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: either you are in one now, you’re coming out of one (or you are heading into one).

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but the goal is to grow in character, in Christlikeness. I think that life is hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.

But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and back onto God. You have to learn to deal with both the good and bad of life. When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, “God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love you better!”

God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do. That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.

Remember…

In happy moments, praise God!

In difficult moments, seek God!

In quiet moments, worship God!

In painful moments, trust God!

In every moment, thank God!