Why Are We Here?

Have you ever wondered what the point of everything is?  Why are we here on the earth?  What difference does it make if we are Christians or not?

There are some obvious answers that come to these kinds of questions, and many people have many different perspectives.  Discovering the meaning of life is a search of many a lifetime.  Even being a Christian, you may here answers like “to tell others about Jesus”, to obtain eternal life, to be forgiven of sin.  And those are all valid and correct.  But what is behind all of that?  Is it just about us?  Thank God we’re saved from hell, end of story?

In the first chapter of the book of Ephesians, God sheds light on his purpose for choosing us to be saved by Christ.  It is motivated by his love, but there is a distinct reaction God is looking to achieve with his grace.

“And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.  The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.  He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” (Ephesians 1:13-14, NLT)

God saves us so that we will praise and glorify Him.  Every good thing God provides in our life is intended to create a response of worship in us.  God wants us to be excited about Him!  We should be giving him credit, be exuberant, joyful and thankful about who He is and all that He has done.

As one thinks about this, there are so many areas of life where we can be more vocal about praising God and sharing His glory.  As we think less about how our actions can help us navigate through life, and more about how they can bring praise and glory to God, we move closer to living within God’s purpose for our lives.  It’s more than just settling our eternal destiny – God’s salvation creates a people living to share His fame with the rest of the world.  It instills a heart of humility, worship and honor.

As we understand that God wants us to praise and glorify him in everything, we can then set our hearts on fulfilling this purpose.  We can see God in all that we do.  Each thought, each action, each step we take now has meaning in the greater purpose of sharing God’s glory.