Living with a Purpose-Driven Life

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Living with a Purpose-Driven Life
by Rick Warren



LIVING A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE
What does God want me to do with the rest of my life?


“Everything, absolutely everything, above and below,
visible and invisible ... everything got started in him
and finds its purpose in him.” Col. 1:16 (Msg)

Most people struggle with three basic issues in life. The first is the issue of identity: “Who am I?” The second is the issue of importance: “Do I matter?” And the third is the issue of impact: “What is my purpose in life?” Particularly as you get older, these questions begin to haunt you. The answers to all three are found in understanding God’s five reasons for creating you and putting you on earth.

God’s purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It will last longer than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose. Even Bertrand Russell, the renowned atheist admitted, ““Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.”

The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point - ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like: What do I want to do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future? But focusing on yourself will never reveal your life’s purpose. The Bible says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone's life is in his power.”

Contrary to many popular books, movies, and seminars, you won’t discover your life’s meaning by looking within yourself. You’ve probably tried that already. You didn’t create yourself so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for! If I handed you an invention you’d never seen before, you wouldn’t know its purpose, and the invention itself wouldn’t be able to tell you either. Only the Creator or the owner’s manual could reveal its purpose.

I once got lost in the mountains. When I stopped to ask for directions to the campsite I was told, “You can’t get there from here. You must start from the other side of the mountain!” In the same way, you cannot arrive at you life’s purpose by starting with a focus on yourself. You must begin with God, your Creator. You exist only because God wills that you exist. You were made by God and for God – and until you understand that, life will never make sense. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.

So many people try to use God for their own self-actualization, but that is a reversal of nature, and is doomed to failure. You were made for God, not vice-versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not you using him for your own purpose. The Bible says, “Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.”


I’ve read many books that suggested ways to discover the purpose of my life. All of them could be classified as “self-help” books because they approached the subject from a self-centered viewpoint. Self-help books, even Christian ones, usually offer the same predictable steps to finding your life’s purpose: Consider your dreams. Clarify your values. Set some goals. Figure out what you are good at. Aim high. Go for it. Be disciplined. Believe you can achieve your goals. Involve others. Never give up.

Of course, these recommendations often lead to great success. You can usually succeed in reaching a goal if you put your mind to it. But being successful and fulfilling your life’s purpose are not at all the same issue! You could reach all your personal goals, becoming a raving success by the world’s standard, and still miss the purposes for which God created you.

As my good friend Bob Buford has pointed out, there is a world of difference between success and significance, so you need far more than motivational talks and self-help advice for the second half of your life. You need to know why you are alive. The Bible says, “Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.”

How then do you discover the purpose you were created for? You only have two options. Your first option is speculation. This is what most people do. They conjecture, they guess, they theorize. When people say, “I’ve always thought life is ...” they mean “This is the best guess I can come up with.”

For thousands of years, brilliant philosophers have discussed and speculated about the meaning of life. Philosophy is an important subject and has its uses, but when it comes to determining the purpose of life, even the wisest philosophers are just guessing.

Dr. Hugh Moorhead, a philosophy professor at Northeastern Illinois University once wrote to 250 of the best know philosophers, scientists, writers, and intellectuals in the world, asking them “What is the meaning of life?” He then published their responses in a book. Some offered their best guesses, some admitted that they just made up a purpose for life, and others were honest enough to say they were clueless. In fact, a number of famous intellectuals asked Professor Moorhead to write back and tell them if he discovered the purpose of life!

Fortunately, there is an alternative to speculation about the meaning and purpose of life. It’s revelation. We can turn to what God has revealed about life in his Word. The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the creator of it. The same is true for discovering your life’s purpose: ask God.

God has not left us in the dark to wonder and guess. He has clearly revealed his five purposes for our lives through the Bible. It’s our Owner’s manual, explaining why we are alive, how life works, what to avoid, and what to expect in the future. It explains what no self-help or philosophy book could know. The Bible says, “God's wisdom...goes deep into the interior of his purposes... It's not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us....”

God is not just the starting point of your life; he is the source of it. To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God’s Word, not the world’s wisdom. You must build your life on eternal truths. The Bible says, “It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

This verse gives three insights into your purpose.

1. You discover your identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

2. God was thinking of you long before you ever thought about him. His purpose for your life predates your conception. He planned it before you existed, without your input! You may choose your career, your spouse, your hobbies, and many other parts of your life, but you don’t get to choose your purpose.

3. The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity.

In the meantime, let me suggest five questions that will help you get started in thinking about God’s purposes for you. I urge you to set aside some time to seriously think about the answers to these questions. They will affect not only the rest of your life, but your eternity.

Life’s Five Greatest Questions

What will be the center of my life?
This is the question of worship. Who are you going to live for? What are you going to build your life around? You can center your life around your career, your family, a sport or hobby, money, having fun, or many other activities. These are all good things, but they don’t belong at the center of your life. None is strong enough to hold you together when life starts breaking apart. You need an unshakable center.

In the Bible, King Asa told the people of Judah to “center their lives in God.” Actually, whatever is at the center of your life is your god! If you have committed your life to Christ, he moved into the center, but you must keep him there on a day-by-day basis. How do you know when God is at the center of your life? When he’s at the center, you worship. When he’s not, you worry. Worry is the warning light that God has been shoved to the sideline of your life. The moment you put him back at the center, you’ll have peace again. The Bible says, “A sense of God's wholeness... will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

What will be the character of my life?
This is the question of discipleship. What kind of person will you be? God is far more interested in what you are than what you do because you are going to take your character into eternity, not your career. Make a list of the character qualities you want to work on and develop in your life. You might begin with the fruit of the Spirit or the Beatitudes of Jesus.

What will be the contribution of my life?
This is the question of service. Knowing your combination of spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences, (your “S.H.A.P.E.”) what would be your best role and how can you make a difference? To be balanced, you need both a “ministry” to believers and a “mission” to unbelievers. You serve in both the church and the world. What will be your ministry in the Body of Christ?

While you’re shaped to serve others, even Jesus didn’t meet the needs of everyone while on earth. You have to choose who you can best help, based on your shape. You need to ask “Who do I have a desire to help most?” Jesus said, “I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” Each of us bears different fruit.

What will be the communication of my life?
This is the question of your mission in the world. God not only has a mission for your life, he has a unique life message that he want to say the world through you. Who needs to hear your unique story of faith? Who has God placed in your path that he would want you to share it with? If you’re a parent, part of your mission is to raise your children to know Christ, to help them understand his purposes for their lives, and to send them out on their mission in the world.

Of course, our lives must support and the message we communicate. Before most unbelievers accept the Bible is credible they want to know what we are credible. That’s why the Bible says “Be sure that you live in a way that brings honor to the Good News of Christ.”

What will be the community of my life?
This is the question of fellowship. How will you demonstrate your commitment to other believers and connection to the family of God? Where will you practice the “one another” commands with other Christians? To which church family will you be joined as a functioning member? The more you mature, the more you’ll love Christ’s Body and want to sacrifice for it. The Bible says “Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.”

What will God say?
I once heard the suggestion that you develop your life purpose statement based what you’d like other people to say about you at your funeral. Imagine your perfect eulogy then build your on that. Frankly, that’s a bad plan. At the end of your life, it isn’t going to matter at all what other people say about you. The only thing that will matter is what God says about you. The Bible says, “Our purpose is to please God, not people.”

One day, God will review your answers to these life questions:
• Did you put Jesus Christ at the center of your life?
• Did you develop his character?
• Did you devote your life to serving others?
• Did you communicate his message and fulfill his mission?
• Did you love and participate in his family, the church?

These are the only issues that will count. As Paul said, “Our goal is to measure up to God’s plan for us” This is what purpose-driven living is all about. Regardless of where you are in halftime, the rest of your life can be the best of your life, if you will start living on purpose today.

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