The Ultimate Purpose of the Christian Life

Mark 12:3030 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. NIV

Most of our lives, we have been searching for a purpose for our lives, one that has a deeper meaning than just the basic action of existing on this planet. We felt that our lives were meant for something; and something meaningful and worthwhile that would give us a true reason to live. We searched for this purpose in things like relationships, a career, a job, a hobby, in school, and in many more things, only to find disappointment at every turn; because though these things could preoccupy us for a moment, they would ultimately fail at fulfilling our spiritual desire for a meaningful life.

Then we find God, and we feel that we see our purpose clearly. We are full of excitement and hopeful to see what God will do with our lives. The overwhelming joy and excitement that drives us motivates us to share the good news with everyone around us, telling them of the great purpose that God has in store for our lives. We devote ourselves to learning more, growing more, and doing more for God. We surround ourselves with more and more people who call themselves Christians to glean as much as we can from them, astounded at the miraculous experiences they recount of God’s work in their lives. We are at the pinnacle of our joy, and we feel that we have what we have always been looking for. Never again will we feel lost; never again will we feel empty; never again will we feel confused because we have found the ultimate treasure in Christ.

Fast forward, five, ten, or even twenty years. We have been doing, and learning, and experiencing, and changing and growing. Yet, we begin to feel a slight hint of an old feeling that we thought would never return. We begin to feel unfulfilled, and maybe a little empty. We quickly disregard it, knowing full well that such a feeling is impossible now that we have found God. Then the feelings begin to grow. We start thinking of the repetitive things that we are doing as Christians: going to church every week, giving contribution to the church and to the poor, sharing our faith, reading our Bibles, praying, going to Bible study, attending revivals and conferences, etc.; and then we begin to think, “ Is this it?” Or, “Is this what I have sacrificed my life for?”

Now our lives are at a crossroads. We have been living the Christian life, yet we are as empty and unfulfilled as we were before we became Christians. “What happened?” we ask. “Is it me?” we consider. “Or could it be that Christianity is not what I expected it to be?” We are busier now than we have ever been, yet nothing that we do, can bring us the fulfillment that we so desire. All of a sudden the world begins to entice us. A career, fortune, fame, success, a relationship, etc., begin to look very appealing, and actually begin to convince us that they will help us be fulfilled. Or other things such as drinking, drugs, sex, pornography, an illicit affair, etc. seem to offer us an exciting alternative to feeling the gnawing feeling that is eating us up inside. We know this path is wrong, but what are we to do? We are at the worst place imaginable: now that we are Christians, we are still stuck living a life of complete emptiness, but now we are not even able to even temporarily gratify our inner cravings by the indulging in the sins of the world. We feel confused, we feel lost, we feel miserable, and utterly hopeless.

John 6:3535 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry , and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. NIV

When we read this scripture, we see a promise from Jesus of complete spiritual fulfillment; one that promises to satisfy the cravings of our soul. And not only this, there are many others:

Ps 37:44 Delight yourself in the LORDand he will give you the desires of your heart. NIV

Ps 63:55 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; NIV

Ps 73:2525 Whom have I in heaven but you?And earth has nothing I desire besides you. NIV

Phil 4:1919 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. NIV

John 10:10I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full . NIV

The Bible promises, and God delivers a fulfilled life; one that fills the empty void that fills our hearts. Then why do we, as Christians, still feel as empty and as we did when we were lost? Why do we feel like if there is no possible way to have God in our lives, and maintain the joy the He promises with this relationship?

The answer is simple and lies in the center of this scripture:

Rev 2:4-54 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place. NIV

Similar to our experience, the church in Ephesus was doing what they were required to do, yet they lost their true purpose and motivation for doing it. They began with an excitement similar to ours, and they ended up confused and lost, similar to us. What happened? Plain and simple: Just like us, they had forsaken their first love.

Yet, how can this be, since we still love God, still worship Him, do things in His name, and have made God the center of our lives? It is an interesting paradox. Yet Jesus clears the confusion when he says:

Rev 2:5 5…Repent and do the things you did at first…NIV

Do you remember what God required from us in exchange for our salvation, when we were first introduced to Him? Do you remember what we proclaimed as we committed our lives to Him at our conversion? Do the words, “Jesus is Lord” help us recall the depth of the commitment that we made when we first came to know God? Maybe the following scriptures will help jar our memory:

2 Cor 5:13-15 14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died . 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. NIV

Luke 14:3333 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. NIV

Luke 14:26-2726 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. NIV

1 John 2:15-1715 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. NIV

Or did we forget what Jesus required of every person whom he ever called to be his disciple:

Luke 5:1111 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. NIV

Luke 5:27-28"Follow me," Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. NIV

Luke 18:22 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him [Rich young ruler], "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." NIV Parenthesis and italics mine.

Phil 3:7-87 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. NIV

When we first met God, and understood His love, grace and mercy, we gave up everything, because God would not settle for anything less, and we knew that God’s treasure was worth far greater than everything that we had. When God said everything, he meant everything, including: our desires, dreams, ambitions, aspirations, talents, comfort, opinions, money, material possessions, relationships, etc. As a matter of fact, Jesus wanted us to put our old self to death, to never return and compete against our devotion to Christ:

Luke 9:23-2523 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. NIV

When we began this race, we crucified our old life, putting it to death, and devoted ourselves to Christ. The overwhelming gratitude that we had, motivated us and filled us up with an inexpressible and glorious joy, a joy that filled our hearts and all of our days. Our lives were still challenging, but that was overshadowed by the overwhelming fulfillment that we experienced at understanding our unworthiness of having a true relationship with God.

What happened between then and now? Before God was awesome; before God was amazing; a life with God was the greatest treasure on earth. Now we feel unfulfilled, we are bored, we are not joyful and we are struggling with emptiness in our hearts. Before, “God” was the center of our life; now “we” are the center of our thoughts. How did “we” get to be more important than “God?”

It is unclear when it happened, or unclear why it happened, but it is obvious that it did happen: our self has been resurrected and is now trying to share the throne with Christ. We feel hopeless and unfulfilled with our Christian walk for this simple reason: how can Christ bless our lives, when he refuses to be part of our life, if it means sharing the throne with the god of self:

Matt 6:2424 "No one can serve two masters . Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. NIV

Here Jesus speaks of money, but it could be anything. The item is not the issue, our hearts are the issue. Jesus refuses to share his throne with another God, and until we put ourselves to death, we will live Christianity without Christ. How ironic that we complain that the world has taken Christ out of Christmas, when we have the audacity of taking Christ out of being Christians.

Do you want to live a fulfilled life, overwhelmed with the joy that comes from having a true relationship with God? If we say yes to that question, we have already lost the battle, because we are again focused on what we want out of this relationship. What we should be focused more on, is our true purpose in Christ, to seek God with all of our hearts, and to live a life that brings Him glory both in this life and the next. We need to stop focusing on how we feel, and turn our attention to how God feels. We need to stop perusing on what we lack, and what we desire, and consider what it is that God wants and desires.

Only when we die to ourselves, can we see the true glory of God, and experience a fulfilling relationship with Him; and this we must do our entire Christian lives. You see, fulfillment, joy, love, satisfaction, security, etc. are all secondary byproducts of having a wholehearted, and single- minded relationship with God. Having God is the entire pursuit, and because we have God, we will reap all of the benefits of a relationship with Him. Once we understand that God is all that we want, we will feel as if we have received the world, because we understand that we have the best this world could offer in Him.

If God is not enough for us, we might want to consider why we are pursuing God in the first place. God is not just enough, He is all, and He is greater than all. God is immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. God is searching for the men and women who will love Him, and pursue Him with this heart, sacrificing everything in order to have Him; the way He has sacrificed everything for us.

What is our ultimate purpose in our Christian life? God is our ultimate purpose. Seeking Him, knowing Him, loving Him, pleasing Him, understanding Him, walking with Him, glorifying Him and being

downright passionately engrossed in Him is the entire purpose that consumes our Christian lives. We may as well get used to this on earth, because this is all we will be doing for eternity in Heaven:

Rev 7:11-12…They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:

"Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" NIV

Tips for daily maintaining our first love:

1. Jesus is Lord – Everyday, repeat the words that we so powerfully declared when we first came to a relationship with God. If it was important for us to declare these words when we first became Christians, it helps us greatly to repeat these words, which help us to recall our commitment as Christians.

2. Read your Bible, often - It was the bible that cut our hearts to bring us to a humble submission to God (Acts 2:37); and it will be scripture that will daily convict our hearts to remain soft and humble toward God’s direction in our lives (Heb 3:12-13), in spite of the daily distractions we face.

3. Pour out you heart in prayer – Sharing with God our honest thoughts and feelings help us to resolve the inner conflict between our rebellious and selfish nature and God place in our lives. It also helps to endear our hearts more strongly to God.

4. Praising and thanking God often – Recalling God’s great attributes (praise) and his great works (thanksgiving) helps us to stay grateful for the amazing relationship that God has graciously bestowed upon us, which helps our hearts to become so much more deeply passionate for Him.