There is a great tragedy in this world, millions of people don’t know why they were created. They cry out, some audibly but far more in internal heart cries, “I don’t know why I was born!” Almost every person ever born at some time has faced the nagging thought in the back of their minds, “Why am I here? What was I made for? What’s my purpose?”

“Purpose” is a very important and powerful thing. People not only long to know the answer to the question of purpose, it is critically important we do discover what our purpose is. Let me give you a few reasons why it is so important for us to know our purpose:

#1 – We need to know our purpose so that we can fulfill it. In Jeremiah 29:11 God tells us, “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God has plans, a future, and a purpose for you. But you may never fulfill your purpose if you don’t know what it is. Imagine a candle that has never been lit … a present that has never been opened … a musical score that has never been played … or a book that has never been read. We need to know our purpose — why we are here — so that we can fulfill it!

#2 – Unless we know our purpose and pursue fulfilling it, we will be frustrated instead of fulfilled. In Psalm 102:6 the psalmist declares, “I am like a pelican in the wilderness.” He felt like a bird of the sea who found himself stuck in a dry, deserted land. Haven’t we all felt that way at some point in our lives? This is especially true of those who don’t know their purpose. Without purpose, we will feel out of place and frustrated. But knowing our purpose and walking in it changes everything. Oswald Chambers once said that “the joy of anything, from a blade of grass upward, is to fulfill its created purpose.” As you discover your purpose and learn to live it out, you will gain a joy that brings your life fulfillment, strength, and resilience.

#3 – Trying to fulfill an unintended purpose can be dangerous and damaging. Allow me to illustrate this with a story from my youth. Like most boys growing up in my neighborhood, I loved to play football. I was always playing football, it was the passion of my young life. Once I got to high school, I couldn’t wait to be on the football team. Finally, I would have all the equipment, the coaches, and the practice facilities to become the great football player I had dreamt of being since I was a little tyke.

Unfortunately, only a few weeks into the season reality struck. At the end of a play during practice, I felt an excruciating pain in my left knee that immobilized me. I couldn’t get up. I couldn’t move. And it took everything within me not to burst into tears. As they carried me off the football field, all I could think about was hoping I could make it home. The next day, while the doctor was telling me that I had torn the cartilage in my knee, I suddenly realized I was never meant to be a football player. The way I was built (tall and thin) just wasn’t conducive to playing football. All those years growing up, I had wanted to be a great football player. Now, however, the truth finally fell upon me, it was not football, but basketball I was meant to play. It is important to realize what you were made for if you are going to accomplish it, and I had finally learned that lesson. It had been a very painful lesson to learn.

How … Can Show Us Why
It is no wonder the book The Purpose Driven Life has been such a runaway bestseller. But we don’t need to go through “forty days of purpose” to understand God’s purpose for mankind. We can discover the purpose of almost anything by seeing how it was made.

In my living room, we have a Haddorff piano made in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois. Through the years, it has served many functions. Being such a beautiful piece of furniture, it has always added to the aesthetics of the room. But it is certainly more than just room décor. When my daughters were young and learning about music, the top of it served as a display for the busts of various musical composers, such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. Yet, it is not primarily a display case either. On a few occasions, it even functioned as a food server holding various plates of appetizers for our guests. But none of these were ever its intended purpose.

Any inspection of how it was made that is more than superficial would reveal it was created for a singular purpose far superior to any of these “apparent” purposes. A look at its 88 black and white keys, music stand, and foot pedals tell you this piece of furniture is more than a display case or decoration. Lifting the lid, we would find the strings, dampers, and felt-covered strikers and it would be clear that, regardless of how it had been used, this was a musical instrument created to make music. Those old Swedish craftsmen who built my piano had a singular purpose in mind as they worked together to build it — to make a fine instrument for making music. We, too, can see why we were made by seeing how we were made as shown in the Bible.

You Were Created by God
It is important to understand that you and I didn’t just happen. We are more than just a highly-evolved animal with opposable thumbs. Years ago, I was an honors zoology major at the University of Iowa focusing on genetics. I discovered quite quickly that I was about the only person in the department who actually believed God created everything, that we weren’t here because a big bang from a gas explosion was fortunate enough to get a “spark of life” and slowly evolve to this present day.

This caused considerable “debate” between myself and a few of the teaching assistants and professors. I would always begin by explaining that the debate between creation and evolution isn’t a struggle of faith versus science. In truth, it is a struggle of faith versus faith — faith in God pitted against faith in chance. I would commend the evolutionist on their faith and explain to them that I just don’t have the level of faith they possess. I simply believe that an all-powerful God created everything out of the goodness and desire of His heart. I do not possess the amount of faith that can believe life could suddenly occur out of nothing nor do I have enough faith to believe that thousands of random, improbable acts continually occurred in just the right sequence to evolve into the diversity of plant and animal life existing in this world. The odds of this occurring would be far, far greater than the odds of buying one ticket in the state mega lottery and winning, then taking these winnings and going to a horse race and betting all the money on the longshot and having him win the race, and then flying to Las Vegas and putting all the winnings on 31 black at the roulette table and winning once again. My, what amazing faith the evolutionists possess.

The Word of God begins by telling us that God is the creator of everything and we were created by Him. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). In these two verses out of the first book of the Bible, God declares four times that we were “created” or “made” by Him. You and I are God’s creation. Created by Him for His purpose.

God’s Special Creation
But even greater than the fact that we were created by God is how we were created. Man, being the last of God’s creation, was purposed to be the highest expression of all His labor. While God spoke the animals into existence, when He formed man from the dust of the ground He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). This difference in creation is extremely important. Of all of creation, only mankind was “God-breathed” into existence. This is because God’s purpose for mankind is far greater than it is for any of the animals … or even the angels.

Furthermore, we can see how special we are to God by noting His approval of creation. Over and again in the Scriptural account of creation, God looks at what He had created and declares “it was good” (Genesis 1:4, 9, 12, 18, 21, 25). But on the sixth and final day of creation, after God had created man, He responded differently from all the previous days. This time He said, “it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). You can feel God’s joy at our arrival.

Created in God’s Image!
The most important insight we glean from the creation of mankind in Genesis is that you and I were created in God’s image. In the passage we looked at above (Genesis 1:26-27), it tells us four different times that we are made like God — in His “image” or “likeness.” “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ... So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him.” When God made man, it was His crowning achievement. Man is the only part of creation that God specifically said He made in His image.

God made us on purpose for a purpose and He made us in His image. So, why were we created in God’s image? This reveals to us that we weren’t just made by God — we were also made for Him! We were made like God so we could have a close, personal relationship with Him!

Let me illustrate what I mean by this. When my son was a boy, he had a pet goldfish named Goldie. Goldie was the nicest, most friendly fish I have ever met. She particularly seemed to like me. While that might sound strange, every time I came home she would excitedly swim around her bowl in circles, and any time I would say her name she would swim to the top of the bowl opening and closing her mouth “throwing kisses” to me. Yes, Goldie and I had quite a relationship.

Yet, no matter how special that relationship might have been, it could never be even remotely as close as the relationship I have with my wife Gini. Because Gini and I are so much more similar (both being human beings), we can relate to one another in so many more ways than Goldie and I ever could. I am able to have a close, personal relationship with Gini because, as people, we can interrelate on so many levels. Our “likeness” allows for a relationship that far eclipses any I could develop with any animal. God made you and me like himself for the same reason, so that we could have a close, personal relationship with Him.

Created for Relationship
God made us for relationship with Himself, and despite what some might have told you it is not merely the relationship of a servant. God didn’t wipe His sweaty brow one day in heaven and exclaim, “Boy, this running the universe is tough work. I need some help!” No, the angels already served God well before we were ever created! Neither is it a relationship of merely being a worshiper who declares the goodness and glory of God. Myriads of angels worship God day and night proclaiming His holiness, glory, and power. Our relationship with God also isn’t merely the relationship of being a messenger declaring His truths. Throughout the Bible, we see various angels doing this. In fact, the word “angel” literally means “messenger.”

While all believers will want to serve the Lord, worship Him, and share with others about Him, the primary purpose for man isn’t being a co-laborer, messenger, or worshiper. It is much more than any of these or all of these combined. It is something far greater; something that causes the angels to be in awe of God’s purpose for mankind. The reason we were made in God’s image, made like Him, was so we could be the family of God … His children with whom He could share His life and love.

You are a Child of God
God is eternally a Father. He always has been and always will be a father, and the relationship God has called us to is a father/child relationship. We see this father heart of God throughout the Biblical record. In Isaiah 63:16 the prophet declares, “For You are our Father … you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is Your name.” Look at this promise the Lord gives to those who will separate themselves unto Him in 2 Corinthians 6:18, “‘And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Because Father God wanted a family, His love has made a way for us to be adopted into His family. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

If you have surrendered your life to Christ and accepted Him as your Savior and Lord, you are a child of God. As John 1:12 promises, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” The Scriptures not only testify that we, as true believers and followers of Jesus Christ, are the children of God, the Holy Spirit will also confirm this truth in our hearts, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. … The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:14-17). If you are “in Christ” you are a child of God with all its rights and privileges. You have been blessed, for “… it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). You are a firstborn child of the Most High God with all the authority of your Heavenly Father (see Hebrews 12:22-23).

You need to understand that your purpose in life has nothing to do with what you accomplish. It’s not what you do … it is who you are! God created you on purpose for the purpose of being His beloved child in whom He is well pleased. This means that your main purpose for existence is to be lavishly loved by the Father, to be the benefactor of His love and grace, and to be the recipient of everything He has for you which was afforded for you on the Cross!

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the primary definition of the word “purpose” is: “the object toward which one strives or for which something exists.” In light of this, we should be pursuing our relationship with our Heavenly Father above anything else, seeking to bring Him great pleasure, and longing to be a child who puts a smile on His face. God desires that we be fruitful, causing His family to grow, by sharing with others the amazing truth that Father God loves them and longs for them to be part of His family.

God has a purpose for every person, and He wants them to know exactly what it is — to be adopted into His family by surrendering their life to Christ’s finished work and living life as His much-beloved child. That is why the Lord has sent the Holy Spirit as a “Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:15). How God yearns for those who have not yet become part of His family to join the fold. Listen to the longing heart of God in Jeremiah 3:19, “I myself said, ‘How gladly would I treat you like sons … I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following Me.” 

Creation is Waiting
Perhaps the best way to reach those who have turned away from God instead of turning to Him is for our lives to show the joy, peace, and satisfaction of being a cherished child of God. Romans 8:19 tells us, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.”  The Phillip’s translation puts it like this “Creation stands on its tiptoes!”  Like a little child standing on her tiptoes peeking out the window to see when Daddy is coming home, creation eagerly longs for the children of God to be revealed.

Creation is not standing on its tiptoes looking for co-laborers to be revealed. Neither is creation groaning, longing for messengers or worshipers to be revealed. Creation is groaning, asking “When are these sons and daughters of God going to be revealed on the earth?” When the beloved children of God are truly seen in the earth, many “wayward children” will come home to their Heavenly Father. It is time for us to fulfill our purpose by realizing that we are lavishly loved by Father God and living in such a way that others will see the fruit of this in our lives.