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Authors: Edward T. Welch
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and think. A very wise person, the writer of Ecclesiastes, has just summarized your purpose. He knows that this purpose is the path of life. He knows what the heart really wants. He is pleading with you to listen to his conclusion and adopt it as your own.
Be willing to try it. How can you keep God’s commands today? Look for someone to love. A wise older counselor, who had experienced depression himself, challenged other depressed people this way: “Fight the spiritual battles that accompany depression so that you can love other people.” It sounds simple, but it is the summary of many years of experience.
L OVE G OD AND L OVE N EIGHBOR , AND O THER P URPOSE STATEMENTS
If you are familiar with Scripture, you will find the summary of Ecclesiastes in a number of different forms.
And what does the L ORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic. 6:8)
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37–39)
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal. 5:6)
The language varies: fear the Lord, trust him, love him, walk humbly with him, or believe in him. Then we express this commitment to the Lord by obeying his commandments, the summary ofwhich is love. This is the true foundation for human life. Apart from it, life is meaningless.
Stop again. Consider how you are responding. Does this sound superficial? Stale? Pie-in-the-sky? Too easy? Important, but you can’t seem to work up any enthusiasm for it? Reflect on this one. Talk it out with another person. Don’t think that you have already tried it and it didn’t work. If you think that this is passé or irrelevant, you are revealing your purpose: to be rid of depression. That, of course, is worthwhile, but don’t elevate it to your purpose in life.
If in doubt, assume that your purpose is not in synch with God’s. You have most likely “tried” this purpose much less than you think. Although you might intellectually know your purpose, aspiring to it is very different, and living it out is more different still. The reality is that no one wholeheartedly aspires to it; no one consistently lives out of it. So begin with confession. Tell your Heavenly Father that you are like a prodigal child who keeps looking for self-oriented purposes rather than God-oriented ones.
There is another reality too. You can grow, day to day, with the Spirit of God energizing you, making this more and more of the purpose of your life. As you do, you will be changed.
G LORIFY G OD
Since Scripture has so much to say about our purpose, it has a rich vocabulary for it. One particularly fine word is the word glorify. We are created to glorify God. In the book of Ephesians, Paul reminds us three times in his introduction that we live “to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14).
When we think of glory, we think of something big, beautiful, and obvious. “What a glorious sunset this evening!” “Her aria was simply glorious.” To glorify God means to have our lives make him obvious and beautiful. We want him to be famous. We want to draw attention to the glorious God who loved us, and we do that by trusting him and loving others.
In 1646 over one hundred clergymen met, at the request of the English king, to develop a summary of biblical teaching that would be suitable to guide the church. In the children’s catechism they developed (which is a series of questions and answers), the first question had to do with our purpose: What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. 3
They are right. This is our purpose. It is not about us; it is about God and his purposes. What could be bigger and grander than that? This is no little scrap of meaning.
C HRIST C RUCIFIED
To test the quality of the purpose statement
Be willing to try it. How can you keep God’s commands today? Look for someone to love. A wise older counselor, who had experienced depression himself, challenged other depressed people this way: “Fight the spiritual battles that accompany depression so that you can love other people.” It sounds simple, but it is the summary of many years of experience.
L OVE G OD AND L OVE N EIGHBOR , AND O THER P URPOSE STATEMENTS
If you are familiar with Scripture, you will find the summary of Ecclesiastes in a number of different forms.
And what does the L ORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic. 6:8)
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37–39)
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal. 5:6)
The language varies: fear the Lord, trust him, love him, walk humbly with him, or believe in him. Then we express this commitment to the Lord by obeying his commandments, the summary ofwhich is love. This is the true foundation for human life. Apart from it, life is meaningless.
Stop again. Consider how you are responding. Does this sound superficial? Stale? Pie-in-the-sky? Too easy? Important, but you can’t seem to work up any enthusiasm for it? Reflect on this one. Talk it out with another person. Don’t think that you have already tried it and it didn’t work. If you think that this is passé or irrelevant, you are revealing your purpose: to be rid of depression. That, of course, is worthwhile, but don’t elevate it to your purpose in life.
If in doubt, assume that your purpose is not in synch with God’s. You have most likely “tried” this purpose much less than you think. Although you might intellectually know your purpose, aspiring to it is very different, and living it out is more different still. The reality is that no one wholeheartedly aspires to it; no one consistently lives out of it. So begin with confession. Tell your Heavenly Father that you are like a prodigal child who keeps looking for self-oriented purposes rather than God-oriented ones.
There is another reality too. You can grow, day to day, with the Spirit of God energizing you, making this more and more of the purpose of your life. As you do, you will be changed.
G LORIFY G OD
Since Scripture has so much to say about our purpose, it has a rich vocabulary for it. One particularly fine word is the word glorify. We are created to glorify God. In the book of Ephesians, Paul reminds us three times in his introduction that we live “to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14).
When we think of glory, we think of something big, beautiful, and obvious. “What a glorious sunset this evening!” “Her aria was simply glorious.” To glorify God means to have our lives make him obvious and beautiful. We want him to be famous. We want to draw attention to the glorious God who loved us, and we do that by trusting him and loving others.
In 1646 over one hundred clergymen met, at the request of the English king, to develop a summary of biblical teaching that would be suitable to guide the church. In the children’s catechism they developed (which is a series of questions and answers), the first question had to do with our purpose: What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. 3
They are right. This is our purpose. It is not about us; it is about God and his purposes. What could be bigger and grander than that? This is no little scrap of meaning.
C HRIST C RUCIFIED
To test the quality of the purpose statement
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