Life can be hard - it is also full of options and full of an infinite number of different paths that we can take. Sometimes the sheer number of choices can be overwhelming. Is there an overall objective to life that we need to keep in mind? What is the purpose of everything we see around us? Is there even a purpose? These are all questions that we have all asked at one point or another in our life.
Many of us feel a pull to find an answer to our purpose in life - but how do we find that answer? Several years ago I felt I needed to study out the philosophical issues underlying life and purpose; this study eventually led me to a detailed study of Christianity. Even being raised going to church intermittently, I had never studied what it all meant. It was easy to make religion a matter of tradition and dogma where the deep answers are never asked or answered. So I started to study the Bible. For nearly a year, I was reading a variety of books about faith and how to live a life with purpose.
But after a year, I started to slide away from seeking purpose in God and falling into seeking fulfillment through physical things, achievement, and relationships. Things were exciting and felt good for almost two years. I was successful and even a good person in the eyes of almost everyone around me - including most churches. Eventually though, my life caved in around me. Putting my relationship, job, and personal pleasure as my purpose nearly killed me.
As I picked up the pieces of my shattered life, God was reintroduced to my life through a fortuitous meeting with an old friend. My conception of purpose, life, and the nature of God was greatly changed through the study of the Bible. I am coming to understand how far apart really following God is from merely attending church or buying into "Religion". I hope that the verses that I will share over the coming weeks will help other people to seek and find God like they helped me.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
Jeremiah 29:11-14 ESV
http://bible.com/59/jer.29.11-14.esv
The passage above was written about the people of Israel after they had been driven from their promised land and were living in exile. What does this passage say about the nature of God? To me it highlights these characteristics: God has good plans for us, God is caring and loving, and most importantly God wants us to seek him with our whole heart. God is not asking for us to go to church weekly - he is asking for a real relationship that we pursue with our whole heart.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'”
Acts 17:24-28 ESV
http://bible.com/59/act.17.24-28.esv
Paul is talking to a bunch of Greeks about the nature of God. God does not need us - he created us with the purpose of having a relationship with him. God does not require our service or anything that we can make for him. How could he need anything when he created the entire universe? It is interesting that Paul is pointing out that even the Greeks recognize the relational nature of God through his fatherhood to humanity. Most people do not "need" to have children (it is even a substantial cost and inconvenience in many ways) but many choose to do it anyway. Why is that? I think that people want to have the relationship of being a parent. Is this so different from God? Why would God create us if he does not need us?
“"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
…
"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:1-2, 6-11 ESV
http://bible.com/59/isa.55.1-2,6-11.esv
God is the purpose in our life was designed for. Everything else is bread that does not satisfy. A true relationship with God is fulfilling - but it requires us to change ourselves in thought and deed. We can never fully understand God or his ways - but we can grow in our understanding through studying his word. In fact, God is guaranteeing that his word has a purpose of transforming us and that it will accomplish its purpose. Do you trust this promise?
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Matthew 6:31-33 ESV
http://bible.com/59/mat.6.31-33.esv
This is one of the most well known verses of the Bible. Not being worried about life sounds good in theory, but is it really attainable? We will all have anxieties in life - and as we look around we can see that there is suffering and pain in this world. How can we not be worried? Because God's ways are higher than our own, we may never be able to understand why all suffering happens - but we can know that it is meant to draw us closer to him. If I had not gone through a period of suffering in my life, I would never have turned to God. Even after Saul of Taurus became the apostle Paul, he suffered intensely - but he was also filled with joy and taken care of by God in every way that mattered. God is promising that everything we need will be given to us (maybe not in the way we expect) as long as we seek God first.
Are you ready to make the choice to seek God?