Ecclesiastes 3:11He has made everything beautiful in
its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet
they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
1 Chronicles 16:28-29
Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength,
ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.
Bring an offering and come before him;
worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
Many people are looking for purpose in life. Some get
into bad things such as drugs or sex in an attempt to find
purpose. Others try to make sense of life through more noble
things such as their career and family. Everybody has a need
that only God can fulfill however.
While the Westminster Confession is not scripture, it does a
great job of summarizing the Bible in regard to our purpose
in life. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him
forever.” We were placed on earth in order to bring glory to
God and to enjoy life.
The worship of something greater than us is in our
nature. Those who don’t acknowledge God still glorify other
things. They hold athletes, actresses, and politicians up on
a pedestal. They acknowledge that these people are greater
than they are by wanting to know all about people who are
otherwise complete strangers to them.
Our glorifying and worship should be reserved for God
alone. All of our heroes are going to let us down and leave
us feeling empty.
The other half of our purpose is to enjoy life. We are
meant to do so alongside of God however, and not just for
the mere 75 years that we may receive here on earth. We were
meant to enjoy eternal life. Once again, this is within our
nature but humanity attempts to fulfill its purpose without
God. Medical science is designed to allow us to live longer,
look younger, and do more at an older age. It is the closest
that man can come to eternal life on earth and it is a vain
attempt to duplicate it.
It is obvious that man is good at attempting to enjoy
life. There are virtually limitless ways in which we can
entertain ourselves today. In the end, our attempts to enjoy
God come up empty. King Solomon saw the meaningless of his
life and summarized everything in the book of Ecclesiastes.
He closes in Ecclesiastes 12:13
Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
We can worship whoever or whatever we want and they are
going to fail us. We can pursue long life but we will never
obtain eternal life. And we can seek every pleasure under
the sun and still feel empty. Without God humanity is
purposeless. Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy life
with him, both here on earth and in heaven.
