God’s Purpose, Glorify God, God created you

Have you ever wondered why God created you? Well, God created you for several purposes, and here are just a few of them.

Glorifying God

I believe the greatest purpose God created us for was to give Him glory; or to glorify God. How do we do that? We can do that by living holy lives, by loving and praying for our enemies, and by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord our God says, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:7), so God created you and He created me to give Him glory, so we must say, as the psalmist said, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness” (Psalm 115:1)! God not only should receive our thanks as we are glorifying Him, He says, “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isaiah 42:8).

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Not Robbing His Glory

Since everything we have is from God, that leaves no room for us to boast or brag. The Apostle Paul asked the rhetorical question, “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it” (1 Cor 4:7)? Did you catch that? We cannot boast at all because all that we have comes from God. That’s why in our church we “sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise” (Psalm 66:2), so let us all “give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the coastlands” (Isaiah 42:12). God says, “My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:11b). To be thankful is to be doing what we were created for, so we must “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:18).

To Seek the Lost

When the Lord Jesus Christ called Saul on the Damascus Road, and later changed his name to Paul, Jesus told Paul to “rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you” (Acts 26:16). Obviously, Paul was not called to pastor one church but to be used by God to build Jesus’ church. Paul says it is “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (1 Col 1:28-29). Notice that Paul is sent to “everyone,” as he says, “I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known” (Col 1:25). That was Paul’s purpose and it’s ours too; to proclaim Christ and as Paul said, it takes a lot of “work within me” and within you, doesn’t it? God called us to be used by Him to bring others to faith in Christ. We can do that as we “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted” (Isaiah 12:4).

For Good Works

God did not save us to sit on our duffs. He called us to be His hands and feet (Matt 25:35-36). We were not saved by works, but we were saved by God to do God’s works, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). God has planned from before we even existed, good works for us to do, but it’s up to us to “walk in them.” God will not force us to do good works and we shouldn’t be forced anyway. We should have a strong desire to be His servant; going where He goes and doing what He asks in His Word.

Live a Holy Life

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.”

God’s will is not some mystery you have to figure out in your life and it’s not hidden in the Bible. In fact, it’s in plain sight. The Bible is crystal clear what His will is for our lives. Scripture tells us, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thess 4:3). Naturally, this means it is God’s will that we avoid any kind of sexual immorality. That’s not hard is it? God’s will for our lives is to live pure and holy lives, of course including no adultery or sex outside of marriage. If our minds are not in God’s Word and instead, our minds are in the world, will not be transformed or have our minds renewed daily. It is a must for us to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2). A transformed mind can more easily discern the will of God’s mind, and we know from Scripture that the will of God is to abstain from sexual immorality and to be transformed by the Word of God and the God of the Word.

Conclusion

One last point on finding and doing God’s will comes from the Apostle Peter, He said, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people” (1 Pet 2:15). We can’t sit by and let someone teach heresy in the church. It’s God’s will to cut that off. Also, living good lives puts to shame those who falsely accuse us, so no matter what happens to us, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). Surely we want God’s “will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10b) don’t we? Well then, that’s what we should pray for as we seek to give God all the glory; for to Him be all the glory; now and forever, amen.

Here is some related reading for you: What is the Purpose of the Church? A Bible Study

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: Creation, Glory To God, purpose