Through My Own Eyes

Many Christians struggle with finding the reason God placed them on this planet that we know as Earth, and they can’t seem to find any contentment as to why they exist; maybe that’s you reading this. We try to seek out individual purposes to satisfy our wants and desires, but what is the main purpose of a believer in this day and age? I’m going to go over three points with an eschatological perspective, and I will go over what the main reason is that you are here for.

It is very common for people to try to find out the reason they exist. Many different religions and beliefs try to fill in that void about our purpose, but only God can fill it, because we as a race are searching for that piece to make us feel complete in our lives. God offers the piece that lasts for eternity. God created mankind with the desire for fellowship with Him, but when sin entered the world, that desire was replaced by newfound worldly desires like pleasure, wealth, tangible possessions, etc. These things seem fulfilling, but there’s never any limit to when a person is fully at rest; they can collect all the wealth and possessions and fulfill any pleasure they may have, but it will never fully satisfy them, not the way a relationship with God can. God did this purposefully so that we will choose Him over the fleeting things of this world, so it’s up to us on what we choose, or Who we choose. Let’s go over these three points, shall we?

One thing I want to point out is that before we go over these three points is that we need to make known our identity in Christ, that we know who we are in Him. It’s important that we know our identity in Christ so that we have what’s called a “biblical worldview”, seeing the world through the way Scripture points it out; having a biblical worldview involves understanding the sin nature of fallen mankind, Jesus being God the Son and being crucified and resurrected, believing in absolute truth, the second coming of Christ, etc. When God draws in someone to Him and that person asks for forgiveness, placing their faith and trust in God (which results in repentance of sins), that person’s nature of being dead in his or her sins is changed from the inside out, being replaced by God’s Holy Spirit living in them, therefore making them spiritually alive, a new creation. So what does this mean for the newly converted believer?

1 Peter 2:9-10 pretty much states that believers are chosen so that they may proclaim who God is to those who don’t know Him or about Him. When the Apostle Peter wrote the letter to believers spread out in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), he wanted to remind the early church that once they weren’t born again Christians and weren’t under mercy, but now they are saved so that they may have fellowship with Him and proclaim the Good News (the Gospel) that Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

The identity of a believer is being someone that belongs to God that is saved and is therefore given a task to spread the influence of Jesus Christ to others and telling them His Gospel, that He alone is the Way to the Father, to heaven. When we accept who we are in Christ, we can begin to do great things as He empowers us to do them. Let’s get to the first point, shall we?

Point 1: Finding your purpose by loving God and others.

The first crucial thing about knowing your purpose as a believer is that you will learn to grow in love with the God that saved you while you were dead in your sins. Loving God is a choice, and it is not just reserved to loving Him; He commands that you love others as well, that way His message of the Gospel can be spread, by words and then by actions. Loving Him can mean being an honest employee at work by not bending to the societal norm of “cheating to make things easy”, giving desires of yours to God and trusting Him with the outcome, or worshipping Him when you’re going through hard times. Loving others can be being patient with irritable coworkers, doing things for people with no desire for recognition or the want to be seen and heard, or being someone where they can trust you with their baggage and being a safe person to talk to about things. Loving God requires sacrifice and dedication, and it is a life-long journey before your time comes to be with Him, so keep putting Him first, and loving others as well.

With these last days being extremely hard for everyone, it can be difficult to love God and others with all the distractions and setbacks in life, but God’s Word remains clear: we must love Him first and others second. With all the corruption and lawlessness abounding people have stopped loving one another and are now hardening their hearts towards each other (Matthew 24:12). As the return of the Messiah draws near, the mission of loving others remains evermore so adamant – don’t fall short on that!

Point 2: Finding your purpose by suffering for Him.

Suffering, unfortunately, isn’t limited to a certain group of people; suffering encompasses the entire human race, and it will continue to be that way until the millennial reign of Christ, and after the 1,000 years are over Satan will be loosed for a short time, and then will be thrown in the lake of fire along with sin, the fallen angels, and all unbelievers.

Suffering isn’t easy in general, even more so going through it as a believer, but suffering is one of the best ways to glorify God, because you have the opportunity to where instead of expressing a lack of faith in Him you maintain your integrity, and rise above defeat. Some examples of suffering for Christ can be facing unfair treatment at work for being a believer, your health being under attack, enduring physical pain of any sorts, having people turn against you, financial troubles, etc. These are some things that a believer may go through, and I want you to know that I don’t know what ways you have suffered as suffering is something every human goes through, though the suffering increases when you become a believer, because the devil will now attack you anyway he can and try to distract you from running the lifelong race of faith, and I’m not professing to have all the answers or why some suffer more than others, but I do know that we live in a fallen world with suffering being the staple to that, and we all will go through it, but I encourage you to reach out to King Jesus and cry out to Him as He knows what you’re going through. 1 Corinthians 9:24 ESV states “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it“. This race is like an athlete in the Olympics running to win the Gold Medal, but added to it are hurdles that get in the way; suffering will be evident in a believer’s life, but endure to the very end and keep holding on, and you will soon forget about those hard times one day.

Point 3: Finding your purpose by serving Him and others.

When Jesus came into this world you would think that He would set up his physical kingdom here on earth, and He would establish his Kingship and rule, but it wasn’t that particular coming; after all He was in the lineage of King David and He was and is the Son of God, God the Son, so why wouldn’t He reign on earth? When Christ came at the 1st Advent it wasn’t to be the conquering Lion of Judah as depicted in the book of Revelation (that comes later in God’s prophetic timeline), but He came as the Lamb, born to die in the hands of sinners, and to be resurrected by God, the Suffering Servant. He came to serve.

There are several verses in the Bible about serving others and putting them above yourself (Mark 9:35, Matthew 25:40, Romans 15:1, Proverbs 3:27, Isaiah 1:17), and it is the model for which a believer should live, not for themselves, but putting God and others before self; the key player is getting rid of the desire to please self. Jesus said that no servant is greater than his master, and that the same persecutions that He would face His servants would face them as well (John 13:16). The point I’m trying to make is that Jesus came to serve, and we should have that same focus if we claim to be His followers. It isn’t easy to serve those who hate us, and Jesus understood this; that is why He said to God the Father, after He had nails driven into his hands and feet, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). When Jesus was saying that He was being merciful to His enemies, and that is a form of serving, by showing them that the way of righteousness is having faith in Christ and doing good to those that don’t deserve it; does anyone really deserve it? When we choose to serve others and not worry about what the world thinks, we can begin to achieve such wonders, wonders of lifting up the name of Jesus Christ and magnifying Him in our lives. This current world has a mindset of believing that kindness is weakness and that you have to cheat to get ahead in life; it promotes self and completely disregards looking out for your fellow neighbor, which is everyone around you (it is like this because Jesus warned in the end times that people would be boastful and arrogant and selfish, and we as believers are in the minority, so it is very important that we don’t blend in with the world and its corrupt system, but rather imitate Christ and His character). Serving others is a way we serve God, and when we serve God, we will end up serving others; the two go hand in hand. Serving others is essential to displaying Christ-like behavior to those around you, and when done in meekness and being humble people will notice; they may not say anything about it, but the message will sink in, and you will have done your part for that moment, but serving others is ongoing, so remember this, as Jesus said it, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me“‘ (Matthew 25:40 ESV).

What is the Reason for My Existence as a Believer?

As we have gone over this material I want to address that I purposefully did not go over things like an “individual calling or purpose” as that wasn’t my goal in mind to go over that topic. I do believe God can call believers to an individual purpose, like being called into the ministry or having peace about starting a new job, and when you lean into God’s Holy Spirit and you seek His will you’ll have a sense of peace about your decision, and sometimes you may have to wait for a time, but when you choose to be faithful and wait you’ll be glad you did. I’ll share a story to kind of explain what I’m talking about.

I worked at a fast-food job for a couple of years, and I was getting kind of heated (no pun intended), and I was looking to see what was out there. I applied to some jobs, and eventually I thought it would be good to apply for a hotel job as a cleaner, so I did. I left my fast-food job and started working at the hotel, come to find out that they didn’t even know I was supposed to start because the lady that interviewed me left to a different hotel, so I was left wondering what was going on. Eventually I got settled overall, and I liked some aspects of the job, but the hospitality industry is very fast paced, and even though I was doing my job well enough I was uneasy. I applied to some other jobs acting in a panic, because with my autism I have new job jitters and just in general I have anxiety, and I found one job that I thought would work, but I ended up fumbling the interview, so I was left to decide where to go from there. Not even but an hour later after the interview I get a call from my former boss asking me how the new job was going, and just checking on me, and I told him that I was wanting to see if I could come back, and I asked him if I could keep my pay the same, and he said that he was going to give me a raise, so I ended up going back for a time, and I sensed that peace about it with me concluding that God was working out some things in my life. My former boss wasn’t obligated to give me a raise, or even keep my pay the same, and even though we had a good working relationship I still wasn’t going to expect him to do that, which is why I was so surprised at the time. I was trying to find out where I was supposed to be in life at that moment, and I believe God was saying to me that I didn’t need to leave just yet, and that He was offering me a solution, and I took it. God knows my struggles with autism, and He knows any struggles you may have, so I hope this story was able to resonate with you a little.

Overall, as we’ve gone over this material, the main reason we are here in this world, in this current day and age, is to glorify God. These three points all correspond with one another to come to the main focal point, which is to glorify God. To glorify God is to love Him, which leads into loving others, because Jesus loved us; loving others means encompassing all that it means to love them, to be merciful and share the truth with boldness but gentleness. To glorify God is to suffer for Him, with enduring persecution in this world, because He suffered for us, and to remain loyal to Christ and not deny His Name. To glorify God is to serve Him, and that means serving others, because Jesus came to serve; He did what He could to reach out to fallen mankind, and it’s up to us now to decide who we will serve.

In these last days it is harder than ever to keep a commitment to Christ, with wars breaking out and rumors of wars, intense division, increasing natural disasters, strong persecution, financial stresses, etc. Despite the current state of the world, we are commanded as believers to be vigilant and endure. The purpose of a believer isn’t so much what occupation you have or how high up the ladder you are in society, but rather glorifying the God that saved you and died for your sins. Before Christ sets up His millennial reign there will be some things that will take place, but be rest assured He is coming, and very soon at that. Keep the faith, and endure to the end, and when the day comes when you stand before Him you’ll hear the best words one can ever hear, maybe even like as depicted in the Parable of the Talents:

“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master”.

Matthew 25:23 ESV

+