Why do I exist?
What am I supposed to be doing with my life?
Why was I created?
What is my purpose?
Have you ever found yourself asking those questions?
Perhaps you throw them up to the sky as prayers, hoping that in answer, signs will start appearing around you. Or words will be spoken to you that will tell you exactly what you were made for.
But you hear no words and you see no signs.
So, discouraged, you return to your laptop or phone and scroll through the social media pages of other people who look like they’ve found their life’s purpose.
As they post about events they’ll be speaking at, shows they’ll be performing in, countries they’ll be travelling to, lives they’ll be impacting while you look at your own life that involves none of those things, and cry out again for a purposeful life.
But what if I told you that what you believe is a purposeful life, actually isn’t.
What Does a Purposeful Life Look Like?
In this 21st Century world of YouTube and Instagram influencers, of vloggers, motivational speakers and young superstars it can be easy to feel like your life is missing something if you do not fit into any of the above categories.
As you go through your everyday life filled with university assignments or work or family and kids, without any applause or eyes on you. Without anyone messaging you or telling you about how you’ve changed their life, you can start to think that maybe your life has no purpose. Or at least maybe you have missed it.
But that is far from true.
That is not what a purposeful life looks like.
A purposeful life is not only determined by how many lives you impact. It is not determined by followers on social media or travel or fame.
A purposeful life is one lived for Jesus Christ.
Are You Living for Jesus?
For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21 (NKJV)
At the end of your life when you stand before God, He is not going to ask you about what you did on social media. Nor is He going to ask you about where you travelled to or even who you impacted.
He is going to ask you, “What did you do with Jesus Christ?”
Did you receive Him as your Lord and Saviour? Or did you reject Him?
Did you live your life for Him, surrendered and humbled? Or did you live it for yourself, prideful and greedy?
This is not to say that if someone is well known and touching the lives of many that they are living for themselves and are not a true Christian. But if you think that being a Christian and living for Christ only means that you have to be making a global impact, you are wrong.
God is not interested in religious acts of what appears to be worshipping Him, praising Him or bringing glory to His name. God is interested in your heart and whether or not you have given it to Him. (1 Samuel 16:7)
He is interested in whether or not you are living for Him, and you don’t have to have a platform to do that. You can live for God in your ordinary and everyday life.
Ordinary, Everyday Life
Every second of every hour, every moment of everyday we need Jesus.
We need Him in big things from business deals to life and death situations and we need Him in small things from walking and talking to cooking and eating.
In much the same way, we can live for Him in big ways and in small ways; in extraordinary moments and in ordinary, everyday moments.
But you can only do this if you have accepted Him as your Lord and Saviour. (Romans 10:9-10) If you have believed with your heart that He died for your sins and confessed with your mouth that He is your Lord. Once you do this God’s Holy Spirit will come to dwell within you. (John 14:16-17)
You will then have a relationship with God and as with all relationships, that are not built up on spectacular moments alone but simple and ordinary moments too, so will your relationship with God be.
Every day you will be able to meet Him in prayer and through His Word. He will tell you His will not only for your life, but for each of your days as you live them. By His Holy Spirit He will guide you through the ordinary moments and help you through the big ones.
Every day you can learn more about Him and understand how to become more like Him as you are renewed by His Word and helped by His Spirit. (Romans 12:1-2) All the while, you will be preparing for the day that His Son returns to make all things new. (Revelation 21:5)
Not Glamorous But Purposeful
The more you live for Jesus and live with Him in these ordinary moments of your life; you will see all the ways that He will make your life extraordinary. Supernatural, even.
And maybe one day you might find yourself also speaking at events, performing at shows, posting and sharing the Good News of what Jesus can do in the lives of others.
Or maybe you won’t.
Maybe you will remain pursuing your God-given calling, whatever it may be, touching the lives of those around you but without the applause and the audience. But that is wonderful too.
For the most important eyes in the whole universe are already on you, those of God the Father, of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. And Their eyes are the only ones that truly matter.
So be bold and courageous (Joshua 1:9) and live the life you have been called to live in Jesus Christ, knowing that for as long as you live it for Him, no matter what it may look like, your life is full of purpose.
