by David Gibson<\/p>\n
Why are we here in this world? To have a good time? To earn a living? To accumulate wealth? To make a name for ourselves?<\/p>\n
Unless we clearly understand our purpose, we’ll be sure to take a wrong turn and miss the whole point of living, as so many people do, which is sad to say.<\/p>\n
But who determines our purpose for living? Do we? If so, then our purpose is whatever we want it to be. Or does God have the right to say what our purpose is? Isn’t He the One who made us? And isn’t He the One who redeemed us from destruction at tremendous personal cost to Himself?<\/p>\n
So, what does God have to say about our purpose? We don’t have to guess-He tells us clearly in His word.<\/p>\n
His goal for us is that we become “conformed to the image of His Son<\/em>” (Romans 8:29 NASB). For this to happen, we must choose to leave Satan’s domain and enter the kingdom of Christ (Acts 26:18; Colossians 1:13-14).<\/p>\n Becoming like Him means shedding our old ways of thinking, speaking, and living and learning to think, speak, and act as He did. This is the challenge of a lifetime. Although we will never attain perfection in becoming like Jesus in this life, we can make great progress over time if we continue growing with God’s help.<\/p>\n Our “job description” as Christians relates closely to our becoming like Jesus. Since Jesus clearly stated His purpose while on earth-to do the Father’s will (John 6:38)-this then becomes our purpose too (Matthew 12:50).<\/p>\n Doing God’s will is comprehensive. We bring every aspect of our lives into harmony with His will. Doing God’s will means denying self, living upright, moral lives, serving others, being active members of His body, the church, helping the lost to find salvation, etc. All this is spelled out in the New Testament. As we read and re-read His word, we better grasp what it means to live like a Christian.<\/p>\n Then, we can claim the tremendous blessings that are ours when we become what God wants us to be and when we do what He wants us to do.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson Why are we here in this world? To have a good time? To earn a living? To accumulate wealth? To make a name for ourselves? Unless we clearly understand our purpose, we’ll be sure to take a wrong turn and miss the whole point of living, as so many people do, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[390,54,941],"class_list":["post-70807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-conversion","tag-obedience","tag-purpose"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29366,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/understanding-your-purpose\/","url_meta":{"origin":70807,"position":0},"title":"Understanding Your Purpose","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps\" (I Peter 2:21). We have been called to a purpose, but unless we understand Christ's purpose, we will not understand our purpose.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91269,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/our-purpose-in-living\/","url_meta":{"origin":70807,"position":1},"title":"Our Purpose in Living","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33478,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-sinning-permitted-if-it-serves-a-greater-purpose\/","url_meta":{"origin":70807,"position":2},"title":"Is sinning permitted if it serves a greater purpose?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do we reconcile Hosea 1:2, and I Corinthians 6:15-18? Is sinning permitted if it serves a greater purpose? e.g. Robin Hood scenario, etc. What makes something a \"sin outside the body\" compared to \"against own body\", e.g. gluttony, etc. Answer: You appear to be assuming that Hosea sinned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57573,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-that-what-you-meant-to-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":70807,"position":3},"title":"Is That What You Meant to Say?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Klein via The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, March 29, 2009 An insurance agent was writing a policy for a cowboy. \"Have you ever had any accidents?\" the agent asked. \"No, not really,\" replied the cowboy. \"A horse threw me off and kicked me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/cowboy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":38337,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-your-purpose\/","url_meta":{"origin":70807,"position":4},"title":"What Is Your Purpose?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant Do you ever wonder: What is my purpose? Something remarkable happened in Fremont, California. Karen Cheng, age 17, received a perfect 1,000 on both sections of the S.A.T., and a perfect 8,000 on the tough University of California acceptance index. This had never happened before. She\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9858,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/our-purpose-in-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":70807,"position":5},"title":"Our Purpose in Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kent Heaton In October of 2005, C. D. Moore of\u00a0Bell,\u00a0Florida\u00a0offered a prayer at a gathering of saints at the Cherry Sink Church of Christ. In the course of the prayer he offered, he made the following statement: \u201cLord, help us to remember what our purpose in life is \u2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lavistachurchofchrist.org\/Pictures\/Jesus%27%20Ministry%20Artwork\/images\/a_gift_for_jesus.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}God has something for us to do.<\/h2>\n