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Seeking PurposeLife’s

Seeking Life’s Purpose

Ever felt lost in life and unsure of where you are heading?

Well, you don’t have to be suicidal to wonder if your life is worth living. You don’t have to be deep in debt to feel bankrupt. You don’t have to be locked behind bars to be imprisoned by your own desires. You don’t have to be walking the streets to sell your body to others. You don’t have to be a millionaire to be in bondage to the love of money. You don’t have to live in a landfill to think that life stinks. You don’t have to be homeless to feel lost and out of place in this world. At one point or another in our life, everyone—rich or poor—struggles with the real meaning of life.

Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century French mathematician and philosopher, offered an explanation. He said there’s a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart. Deep within us is a restless desire to know the One who made us. We want to discover the purpose He has for our existence in His vast universe. And even though we may suppress or deny that longing within us, it will surface again and again.

These selections from Our Daily Bread are intended to help you discover the real meaning of life. If you find these articles helpful and would like to receive this devotional, just complete the request form on this leaflet and send it to us. There is no subscription fee.

Day 1

tRue satisfaction

Read: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. —Ecclesiastes 1:8

Amanstopped at a travel agency and said he wanted to go on a cruise. “Where to?” he was asked. “I don’t know,” was his reply. So the travel agent suggested that he take a look at a large globe that was in the room. He studied it for some time, then with a look of frustration he exclaimed, “Is this all you have to offer?”

The world in which we live has many things that appeal to us. Apart from what is wrong, we can and should enjoy its pleasures. A delicious meal together with friends warms our hearts. The beauties of nature inspire and fill us with wonder. Good music refreshes our souls. And work itself can be fulfilling. Even in a stress-filled world we can find great enjoyment. And yet these pursuits do not bring full and lasting satisfaction. In fact, people who live only for self-gratification, no matter how lofty their achievements, will always long for more. It makes no difference how deeply they drink from the wells of this world’s pleasures; their thirst is still not satisfied. They must agree with Solomon that “all is vanity and grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:17).

Only by living for Jesus Christ do we experience true satisfaction. —Richard

DeHaan

The world is filled with so much good That brings us joy and pleasure, But true fulfillment only comes When Christ we love and treasure. —Sper

Putting Christ first brings satisfaction that lasts.

Day 2

“i Want moRe!”

Read:

Ecclesiastes 5:10-20

He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver.

—Ecclesiastes 5:10

Things were going along as well as could be expected in the Sunday school class for 2-year-olds. But then along came “Charlie.” As soon as we took him from his mother’s arms, he squirmed and fussed. Like a broken record, he whined over and over, first for his mommy, then for his daddy.

Then a nickel fell out of his pocket, and his tune suddenly changed. As he clutched the five cents in his chubby little fist, Charlie cried over and over, “I want more money!” Finally, one of the other adults thought he might quiet Charlie down by giving the youngster a penny.

Quickly the cry became, “I want another penny!” Then it switched back to, “I want more money.”

I couldn’t help but think how childishly adult his words were. Sure, money has its place. But as the wise man who wrote Ecclesiastes realized, those who love money will not be satisfied with it (5:10). The best way to live, therefore, is to work hard and be thankfully satisfied with whatever increase the Lord gives.

Yes, loving and trusting God makes a whole lot more sense than being like Charlie, who responded to his restlessness with the cry, “I want more money!” If we have the Lord in our life, we need nothing more.

—Mart DeHaan

When you look at others with their lands and gold, Think that God has promised you His wealth untold; Count your many blessings—money cannot buy Your reward in heaven nor your home on high. —Oatman

To be rich in God is better than to be rich in goods.

Day 3

contact With the almighty

Read: John 1:1-14

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

—John 1:14

Afterspending millions of dollars in a 40-year project, scientists have still made no contact with extraterrestrial beings. But their search continues. Robert Jastrow, director of the Mount Wilson Institute, says that he expects to find “beings superior to us . . . , not only technically, but perhaps spiritually and morally.”

Jastrow and his fellow scientists hope that an alien civilization billions of years old will be able to tell us why we are here and how to overcome our destructive tendencies, which make advances in weapons technology so terrifying. This fear that humanity might destroy itself, as well as the innate desire for meaning in life, may account for the many popular books and movies about extraterrestrial beings.

In his book Show Me God, Fred Heeren says of this interest in alien beings: “People want a higher companion, but not too high . . . . People are looking for an intermediate . . . but someone who can still identify with us as a fellow creature.”

How sad that they search in the wrong places for what God has already provided in Christ! The Bible says there is “one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Jesus has revealed God to us and opened the door to life eternal. —Herb Vander Lugt

To get a clear view of God, focus on Jesus Christ.

Day 4

the only Way to Be happy

Read:

John 7:25-38

Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”

—John 7:37

There is no lasting earthly satisfaction. Marriage, family, money, fame, enlightenment, travel, athletics, and academic achievement—nothing completes our joy. Any satisfaction we gain in our quest fades quickly and becomes a vague memory, if it can be remembered at all.

Oh, to be sure, there are happy events along the way, unexpected moments when we experience pure delight. But those moments are fleeting, and we can never go back in time to relive them and recapture the sensation.

Why then do we keep seeking for something to satisfy us? Simply put, it’s because we have to. Whether we realize it or not, our souls are thirsting for God. Every desire, every aspiration, every longing of our nature is nothing less than a yearning for God. We were born for His love and we cannot live without it. He is the happiness for which we have been searching all our lives. Everything that we desire is found in Him—and infinitely more.

And so, when you find yourself restless and thirsting for something more in life, respond to Jesus’ invitation, “Come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). Go to Him, drink freely of His grace and forgiveness, and experience true joy. —David Roper

All that I want is in Jesus; He satisfies with the joy He supplies; Life would be worthless without Him, All things in Jesus I find. —Loes © Renewal 1943 Hope Publishing Company

Happiness depends on happenings, but joy depends on Jesus!

Day 5

Waiting

Read:

Titus 2:11-15

Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

—Philippians 3:20

In the 1940s, Samuel Beckett wrote a play called Waiting for Godot, which is now regarded as a classic. Two men stand on an empty stage, hands in their pockets, staring at each other. All they do is stand and stare. There is no action, no plot; they just stand there waiting for Godot to come.

But who is Godot? Is he a person? Does he represent God?

Christian ethicist Lewis Smedes suggests, Godot “stands for the pipe dreams that a lot of people hang on to as an escape.” As the play ends, those men are still standing on the stage doing nothing, just waiting.

When the 50th anniversary of that play was celebrated, someone asked Beckett, “Now will you tell us who Godot is?” He answered, “How should I know?”

Waiting for Godot is a parable of many people’s lives—empty and meaningless, a pointless matter of waiting. And if there’s no God of love, grace, and wisdom, then life really is a hopeless waiting for empty time to pass.

How totally different, though, is Christian hope! We’re waiting and “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). That hope sustains us—a hope that beyond this world lies a life of indescribable blessing.

—Vernon Grounds

We’re waiting for You, Lord, to come And take us home to be with You; Your promise to return for us

Gives hope because we know it’s true. —Sper

The greatest joy on earth is to have the sure hope of heaven.

Day 6

the homeless

Read: John 14:1-7

In My Father’s house are many mansions.

—John 14:2

Ihave seen them curled up on park benches in Chicago. I’ve observed them asleep in doorways within the shadow of the White House. They slump against the walls of a New York subway. They huddle in the alleys of Los Angeles. They are the homeless—restless, furtive, often sick.

To me, homelessness illustrates the human condition without God. The Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6). To deny God, as so many people do today, is to be homeless in a world He designed for His own glory. To abandon His moral law is to drift aimlessly. To deny Him is to make life meaningless. To refuse His love is to sink into the coldness of despair.

The answer to the human dilemma is to believe in Jesus Christ. The early church leader Augustine (354–430) said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”

To trust in Christ is to come into the warm and loving family of God. To hope in Him is to look forward to a heavenly home that will last forever (John 14:1-3). To receive Him is to become part of His world of truth, morality, and peace.

Are you feeling homeless? Come home to God.

—Dave Egner

Adrift in a world that lacked meaning, I felt a compulsion to roam, And then one bright day I met Jesus, At last I had found my heart’s home! —K. De Haan

We are homeless until Christ is at home in our hearts.