what is the purpose of my life?

hey folks, this is just a summarised version of what i shared during class devotion today. enjoy!

i have recently been stumbled upon questions like what is the purpose of my life? what is the main reason that we are here for? in fact, life is just the 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 that will be the end of my BODY -- but definitely not the end of me!

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions and trillions and trillions of years in eternity with God. This is just the "warm-up" act (or rather, the dress rehearsal). God wants us to practice on earth what we will do for eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make any sense. Life is a series of problems: you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. where are you at?

The main reason for this is because God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is interested in making your life holy than He is making you happy. We can be resonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in God's likeness.

This year has been one of the greatest beginnings, and it has also it's fair share of tough times. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. But now I don't believe in it anymore.

Rather than life just being hills and valleys and all other geographical landforms that you can think of, I believe that it's more of two rails on a railroad track, and at times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are, there's always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are, there's always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. which will you choose? If you just focus on your problems alone, you're going into the road of self-centeredness where everything is all about 'which is my problem? my issues? my pain etc.' But amazingly, one of the easiest way to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others. We have to learn how to deal with the good and bad times we face in our lives.

I have heard of a story of Rick Warren, the author of the book 'Purpose Driven Life' and in one of his interviews he was talking about how God has helped him about the 'wealth' he received from this book, he said "Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, 2 Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free."

and just based on this short interview alone, i realised that we need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressure? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Pride? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes for my life?

I make it a habit (on top of my quiet-time) that when I get up in the morning, I will 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." Remember, God didn't put you and I here on this earth just to fulfill a to-do-list. He's much more interested in who you and I are than what you and I do. That's why we are called human beings and not human doings.

to end this of, just remember that in:
HAPPY MOMENTS --> PRAISE GOD!
DIFFICULT MOMENTS --> SEEK GOD!
QUIET MOMENTS --> WORSHIP GOD!
PAINFUL MOMENTS --> TRUST GOD!
EVERY MOMENT --> THANK GOD!


-take care and God bless! =)