ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

What's your purpose?

Updated on January 24, 2017
A quote about purpose from Robert Byrne:
A quote about purpose from Robert Byrne: | Source

Why I'm making this page about purpose

I'm making this page about purpose because many people don't realize their purpose or even the importance of the subject. Many people go through life blindly, accepting whatever comes their way and never thinking that they could make a change - never even suspecting that their little life could possibly be a pwrt of something greater in the scheme of things.

Some time ago I was made to realize the importance of purpose in the Divine scheme of things. My mom's church was studying a book by Rick Warren called "The purpose Driven Life, " in which he points out the necessity of finding our purpose and the fact that it can only be found through God and .is a part of something much greater. I got a copy and it changed my life by making me realize the importance of purpose and that my life does have a God-given purpose and a place in the larger scheme of things .

First take my quick entry pole (immediately below), then listen to the author (Rick Warren) talk about purpose in the video further below: Then, after viewing a few quotes on purpose, take my more detailed poll before going on to learn more about purpose. Thanks.

Quick entry pole

Do you know what your life purpose is?

See results

Listen to the author, Rick Warren speak on purpose:

The Purpose Driven Life
The Purpose Driven Life | Source

The book that changed my life.

As I said, Rick Warren's book changed my life by making me realize the importance of purpose, and the fact that it all starts with God, and is a part of something much larger, and showing me how to go about discovering what it is for my particular life.. Here is the cover and the purchase link is far Below at the end of the page. I also recommend the companion study aids (Further below), which are also quite helpful in implementing the book's principles.

Two more quotes about purpose:

Thomas Kempis purpose quote
Thomas Kempis purpose quote | Source

"A MAN WITHOUT A PURPOSE IS LIKE A SHIP WITHOUT A RUDDER--A WAIF, A NOTHING , A NO-MAN."

---Thomas Carlyle

More detailed poll about purpose

Do you know what your God given purpose in life is?

See results
Eternal purpose
Eternal purpose | Source

Your eternal purpose:

As Rick Warren reminds us, in his book, "The Purpose Driven Life," it all starts with God." So easily we forget this simple fact. One thing he says is that "the purpose of your life fits into a much larger cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity."

God had a purpose when he created the universe and He had a purpose when He created us.(Rom.9:11) Thus, our lives have a purpose. Thus, instead of being driven by guilt, anger, fear, resentment,materialism or need for approval, we should be driven by our purpose, that is, God's purposes for us. This will give our life meaning. It will also simply and focus our life. Without a clear purpose, you will tend to make decisions based on pressures, circumstances or you present mood. Without a purpose, you may try to do too much and thus become fatigued. Without a clear purpose, we are constantly changing our direction. A knowledge of our purpose is what should motivate us and thus, energize us. And knowing our purpose prepares us for eternity, because we were made to last forever.In Ecclesiastes, Solomon says the God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

When you stand before God, He will ask you two questions: 1)"What did you do with my Son, who died to save you?" and 2) "What did you do with what I gave you?"

One crucial thing which we must realize is that we were created to be loved by God. Think about that for minute--the creator of the universe made you in order to love you. Of course, you rejected His love and went away from Him, which is why he had to send His Son to die for you in order to bring you back to Himself. We will all have to live somewhere forever, and if you accept by faith the gift of His son, it will be in heaven with Him. That's your eternal purpose.



But what about your purpose while here on earth?

WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?
WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE? | Source

You can study about and discover your purpose either individually or as a part of a group.

I told you in the beginning that I first became of aware of the "The Purpose Driven Life" through my mother's church, as the church as a whole was studying the book. It's designed to be studied either individually or as a church or in small groups. The study guides below serve as an additional aid for any type of group study, but would also be helpful for individual study as well.

Study aids for groups (& individuals too):

The Purpose Driven Life Curriculum Pack: A Six-Session Video-Based Study for Groups or Individuals (Purpose Driven Life, The)
The Purpose Driven Life Curriculum Pack: A Six-Session Video-Based Study for Groups or Individuals (Purpose Driven Life, The)
Any group looking to greatly enhance their life together needs to study the material listed below, as did my Mom's church. A small group study would be especially helpful as it allows for accountability, which makes this study quite powerful for growing a healthy group. The little leaders' guide has a lot of helpful additions.This is great for those lacking experience putting together Bible studies in their home, For 'old hands,' it still has useful information.
 
Glorify God
Glorify God | Source

Your ultimate purpose:

Whether you are prepared for eternity or not, to get anywhere in this life, you need to realize what your purpose is. It is almost impossible to have a vision without purpose. And without a purpose, any goals which we might set would be meaningless. So let us ask ourselves, what is our ultimate purpose in life. The Westminster confession summed it up this way: "What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." In fact, as C.S. Lewis said, "In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him." Have you ever thought about that--to enjoy God? If you are in sin, you are enjoying the pleasures of sin, but, as the Bible tells us in Heb.11:25 , the are "for a season." On the other hand, the Psalmist says of God, "At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Ps.16:11b ) He also says "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork." (Ps.19:1) All creation gives glory to God and we can enjoy the fruits of God's creation, and in so doing bring Him glory. Everything that God created brings glory to him except for two classes of beings, the fallen angels (demons) and us (man.) We have all failed to give Him the glory He deserves. That's why Paul adds the second phrase in Rom.3:23. After stating the universally known fact that "all have sinned," he adds "and come short of the glory of God." If it were Hebrew poetry, this would be considered a parallelism, that is, two phrases referring to the same thing. Thus, sinning fails to glorify God and failing to glorify God, ultimately is sin. Thus Paul also tells us "Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. How can we do that? Just by being aware of what we are doing and asking ourselves "would this glorify God?" Try it for a week and see if it doesn't change some of your habits, what you watch and listen to, etc.

But you may ask, "How do I know if a particular thing is glorifying to God or not?" Since all true beauty and creativity originated with God, the apostle gives us another test in Philippians 4:8: "..whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about these things." If a certain activity truly meets all these requirements, I believe we can say it is glorifying to God.

The bottom line is this: When anything in creation fulfills its purpose, it brings glory to God. So it's sort-of a circle. Our chief purpose is to glorify God and when we fulfill our purpose, we do glorify God. But how do we find our specific purpose, or purposes in life? By getting to know God. We do this first through accepting the gift of His son, as mentioned earlier, and second through reading His word, applying it to our lives, and through prayer and worship. Then, through prayer we can also discover the gifts He has given to each of us and how He wants us to use them for His glory. Part of that may include reaching out and telling others about Him. We also glorify God, as I said, by running our leisure activities through the sieve of Philippians 4:8. All of the above bring glory to God, and thus helps to fulfill our ultimate purpose.

The resource listed below should be a big help in learning to glorify God for who He is. [From Amazon:] "'Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.' This uncovered treasure is intended for all who desire to teach or to learn the purpose for which we were created. ....This little gem is full of instruction on the reason we are here and the way that we can live to the glory of God and the enjoyment of God. Parents and children, teachers and pupils, pastors and congregation alike will benefit from this wonderful book."

Listen to Rick Warren talk about our purpose - that we were shaped for service to God.

Natural and Spiritual gifts and our purpose:

Part of realizing our purpose is to realize that we were shaped to serve our creator either directly or by serving others. In the above video, Rick Warren points out the difference between natural abilities, which with we are all born, and Spiritual gifts, which God gives us when we accept Christ. Both of these relate to our purpose in life and enable us to fulfill it, and it pays to know which ones of each we have.

The expanded edition:

Whatever other books on purpose you may buy, you should still consider getting Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life." It might just change your life, as it did mine. And while you're at it, why not get the expanded editon below? [From Amazon: Rick Warren] "has updated and expanded the book with new chapters on the greatest barriers to living your purpose, plus introductions to each chapter theme, and additional messages that go deeper into each chapter." . The changes and additions may well make this version more worth having than the original.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)