The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

by Rick Warren

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 is our Owner’s Manual,

“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long

This is exactly correct: no other purpose can be substantiated, not even through evolution!

Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship.

This has opened my perspective. I believe it to be correct.

Worship is a lifestyle.

The one and only.

God loves all kinds of music because he invented it all — fast and slow, loud and soft, old and new. You probably don’t like it all, but God does! If it is offered to God in spirit and truth, it is an act of worship.

I still have a problem with this: I just cannot imagine the angels of Bethlehem singing anything more than sweetly reverently.

Worship is not a part of your life; it is your life. Worship is not just for church services. We are told to “worship him continually” 6 and to “praise him from sunrise to sunset.” 7 In the Bible people praised God at work, at home, in battle, in jail, and even in bed! Praise should be the first activity when you open your eyes in the morning and the last activity when you close them at night. 8 David said, “I will thank the Lord at all times. My mouth will always praise him.”

“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.” 5 God smiles when we trust him completely. The second reason Noah pleased God was that he trusted God, even when it didn’t make sense. The Bible says, “By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. . . . As a result, Noah became intimate with God.” 6 What God wants most from you is relationship.

God’s Word is clear that you can’t earn your salvation. It comes only by grace, not your effort. But as a child of God you can bring pleasure to your heavenly Father through obedience. Any act of obedience is also an act of worship.

An amazing thing happens when we offer praise and thanksgiving to God. When we give God enjoyment, our own hearts are filled with joy!

Surrender is not the best way to live; it is the only way to live. Nothing else works.

In the final analysis, the only thing that we can offer to God is our own Free Will. Everything else was His first.

eventually you discover that the greatest hindrance to God’s blessing in your life is not others, it is yourself — your self-will, stubborn pride, and personal ambition. You cannot fulfill God’s purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans.

“I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me, that is, I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.” 25

“Passion for your house burns within me, so those who insult you are also insulting me.”

This is messianic prophecy fulfilled when Jesus cleansed the temple .

Regardless of circumstances and how you feel, hang on to God’s unchanging character. Remind yourself what you know to be eternally true about God: He is good, he loves me, he is with me, he knows what I’m going through, he cares, and he has a good plan for my life.

Remember what you know and hang onto that . Doubt Your doubts first. Paraphrase from Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf

“Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light.”

it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking we are mature if there is no one to challenge us. Real maturity shows up in relationships.

We grow faster and stronger by learning from each other and being accountable to each other.

This Is good to reremember in marriage . No Doubt this is one of the purposes thereof ..

Joining the membership of a local church is the natural next step once you have become a child of God.

Every time you understand and affirm someone’s feelings, you build fellowship. The problem is that we are often in so much of a hurry to fix things that we don’t have time to sympathize with people.

Patience comes from wisdom, and wisdom comes from hearing the perspective of others. Listening says, “I value your opinion, I care about our relationship, and you matter to me.”

The cliché is true: People don’t care what we know until they know we care.

Confess your part of the conflict. If you are serious about restoring a relationship, you should begin with admitting your own mistakes or sin.

Often the way we handle a conflict creates a bigger hurt than the original problem itself. When you begin by humbly admitting your mistakes, it defuses the other person’s anger and disarms their attack because they were probably expecting you to be defensive. Don’t make excuses or shift the blame; just honestly own up to any part you have played in the conflict. Accept responsibility for your mistakes and ask for forgiveness.

In resolving conflict, how you say it is as important as what you say. If you say it offensively, it will be received defensively.

If you are a part of God’s family, it is your responsibility to protect the unity where you fellowship. You are commissioned by Jesus Christ to do everything possible to preserve the unity, protect the fellowship, and promote harmony

if we concentrate on loving each other and fulfilling God’s purposes, harmony results.

Be realistic in your expectations. Once

Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real is evidence of immaturity.

instead of leaving the church, we need to stay and work it out if at all possible. Reconciliation, not running away, is the road to stronger character and deeper fellowship. Divorcing your church at the first sign of disappointment or disillusionment is a mark of immaturity.

This Is excellent advice for anyone who undertakes marriage . This Is the key to a long-lasting relrelationship.

“What right do you have to criticize someone else’s servants? Only their Lord can decide if they are doing right.” 10 Paul adds that we must not stand in judgment or look down on other believers whose convictions differ from our own: “Why, then, criticise your brother’s actions, why try to make him look small? We shall all be judged one day, not by each other’s standards or even our own, but by the standard of Christ.”

Listening to gossip is like accepting stolen property, and it makes you just as guilty of the crime.

I Detest gossip. So often it seems that the only topic available for coconversation is other people. This is indicative of shallow thinking of the participants

People who gossip to you will also gossip about you. They cannot be trusted.

stand before God and give an account

We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything

Here Is a point to stop and ponder.

Let me be absolutely clear: You will never become God, or even a god. That prideful lie is Satan’s oldest temptation. Satan promised Adam and Eve that if they followed his advice, “ye shall be as gods.” 5 Many religions and New Age philosophies still promote this old lie that we are divine or can become gods.

This Is another mistake in itself. God did not want Adam and Eve to become as God at that point in their existance. They were there to populate the earth and they could not do that until after the fall. The Ultimate DestIny OF ALL Mankind is to attain all of the chacharacteristics of God and be thus promoted to the position of Gods. This is called Theosis.

If you study and apply God’s Word, connect regularly with other believers, and learn to trust God in difficult circumstances, I guarantee you will become more like Jesus.

Spiritual maturity is not a solitary, individual pursuit! You cannot grow to Christlikeness in isolation. You must be around other people and interact with them. You need to be a part of a church and community. Why? Because true spiritual maturity is all about learning to love like Jesus, and you can’t practice being like Jesus without being in relationship with other people.

Your spiritual transformation in developing the character of Jesus will take the rest of your life, and even then it won’t be completed here on earth. It will only be finished when you get to heaven or when Jesus returns. At that point, whatever unfinished work on your character is left will be wrapped up.

fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. . . . Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” 25 You must make a counter-culture decision to focus on becoming more like Jesus.

QUESTION TO CONSIDER: In what area of my life do I need to ask for the Spirit’s power to be like Christ today?

AN Excellent question to consider with each new day .

Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes an intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing.