Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Neh 8:10
…for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
There are many who are looking for purpose in life, and they try to find meaning in the thing they desire but it only leaves them dry and bitter. Take the debauchers for example, whom God has handed over to their lust (Rom 1:24), after they have had their fill of sex, drugs and drunkenness, are they satisfied? No! They are left feeling even more bitter with even more resentment for the true Almighty Triune God. However, this is how the natural man has been from the fall of Adam, natural man is a lover of sin and he/she looks for life’s meaning in their love for sin. There is however no fulfillment in fornication, theft, murder, covetousness, avarice, bearing false witness, gossip and drunkenness but mankind from the fall of Adam tries to find fulfillment in these things, as though our life’s purpose was in these things. It is no wonder the Psalm 14:1 says… “the fool says in his heart, there is no God”!… because to go about our lives, like these things were our purpose, is to believe in our hearts that there is no God.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Acts 2:38
Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Thankfully, as you have read from the 2 pieces of scripture above, there is hope for us in Jesus Christ but if we are to seek him, we must deny ourselves and by denying ourselves I don’t mean giving up on life, like the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari sort. I mean that we turn from all those desires which are sin before the eyes of God, and wash ourselves by continually reading His word, and by this, I don’t mean reading the same chapters day after day but studying the Bible from cover to cover, till we know it like the back of our hand. Just like how you study to get employed and then you learn on the job as well, the same way you need to study and practice what’s taught in the Bible, that seriously. It’s after all God’s word, the very source of a fulfilling & meaningful life (John 4:13-14).
Gen 1:26
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Psalm 19:7-8
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Mat 28
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
From the three pieces of scripture mentioned above, what we ought to understand is, that mankind was made in the image of God and so the purpose of man is to reflect His image, which is the nature/character of God, that is His Law. God is Spirit (John 4:24) and His Law is spiritual (Rom 7:14) and true spirituality comes from meditating on His Law (Ps 1:2). The irony is that, though the Bible is out there for everyone to buy and read, no one really has the desire to do so, because they are all chasing after their sin, and so the world is filled with nothing but apathy about true spirituality. The world would rather go indulging in their sinful lust and call it spirituality, the Kamasutra & Tantric Yoga are fine example of such spirituality. So, though many may hate Salvation by predestination, the fact remains that by ourselves we have no desire for God, because all of mankind fell when Adam sinned against God. So, though the Gospel is preached to many, it is only those who are ordained to eternal life who believe (Acts 13:48), because Salvation doesn’t only encompass saving faith but everything from that desire, which draws people to Jesus (Jn 6:44), to that Godly sorrow which brings about repentance (2Cor 7:10), leading us to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 2:8-10).
Mat 11:28-30
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
John 3:8
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
If you look closely at the two pieces of scripture mentioned above, you will notice that these show Biblical predestination is not to make people feel unwelcomed, it is just to help us understand God is sovereign in salvation (Rom 9:11:24). On the contrary, if you look at Mat 11:28-30 mentioned above, you can see Jesus calling those who are tired and fed up with the world’s wicked scheming, people who are nobody and crying out for hope. In His call, He is offering to take the penalty of your lawlessness/sinfulness upon Himself and in its place give you His nature, so that you may shine radiantly as an image of God – bearing God’s own nature, the very purpose for which mankind was made. Another thing you must remember, is that you must not let anyone discourage in your seeking the Lord, no matter how genuinely Christian that person may be. Take the account Isaac in Gen 27, he wanted to bless Esau but God predestined Jacob to inherit Isaac’s blessing (Gen 25:23), and that is how it happened.
John 6
33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
Rom 5:17
For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
So, there you have it, if you’re looking for a fulfilling life, the solution is coming to faith in Jesus Christ. I am certainly not talking about being just another lukewarm nominal Christian. You need to be something like how Pastor Voddie Baucham describes himself… “a fire-breathing, TULIP believing, five-point Calvinist” because that is how people who find their life’s fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ really are. Their lives are more than just satisfied, they are filled with enough fiery zeal to stand up for God’s truth, even if it’s against the whole world because they have found life’s ultimate purpose in being a radiant image of God.
Making known the Defeated Dragon 