GOD’S PURPOSE IN OUR LIFE FUNCTIONS

by Pastor George D. Cutler

       Grace Gospel Youth Ministry

In the allotted span of our potential life expectancies, there are numerous hours of functioning in the daily processes of engaging earthly encounters. Yet, in spite of these earthly assigned appointments, it is so very important to know that these limited boundaries of functionality don’t make up what prioritized existence is all about. Note that the words “prioritize” and priority are not used so much in the sense of whether something is important but even more what is the most important. In this sense, what is the meaning or purpose of our functioning? In other words, should things we do simply revolve around our temporary accommodations as their sole purpose or is there a "higher calling” and/or purpose for living"? The earthly wonders of this life are grouped in the sea of temporary actions loaded with continuous trends of changing.  

Accumulations of daily unstable events are a constant threat to the comfort and peace we all seek. God’s people’s protection is positioned only in their "calling" to their Heavenlies eternal dwellings, above the things of this life’s encounters. So the most important functions in life according to God’s Word are engaged beyond daily viewings, even though we do many considerable daily tasks in the impassive flow for our safety, benefits and sense of well-being in communities. Is this, we must recognize God's function, as having created everything including His making possible our functioning. Because of sorrowful occurrences that often happen, many questions are raised: Does God care about what benefits and comforts us? What about the things that we think we need? How can we explain the things that happen? Also, doesn’t everyone have some calling? Doesn’t God have a purpose for everything that happens and if so, is His purpose satisfied or limited by what we do and how we do things?

To clear up these questions, we need to recognize that mankind’s functions meagerly operate in the system of God’s purpose. Crystal-clearly, God is not merely engaged in everything in life but He alone controls everything that exists because He has created all that exists. So, this brings in the question of whether God is interested in our enjoyment, satisfaction and safety, etc. Looking around in our life, many times some things are very puzzling. So we wonder how our high calling is actually tied to our daily functions. Without a doubt, we are called from God to do the things that we do well, i.e., showing our call to God through our service to others. This is displayed in the various occupations or stereotyped impressions in performing God’s tasks. When we observe pastors, ministers or Christian educators’ dedication in the study of God’s word, certainly this represents their high calling. We usually think that this is their highest calling, except that is a misunderstanding of what one’s eternal "calling" actually is.

In Romans 1:7 the phase “beloved of God, called saints” identifies those “called as saints” as those “beloved of (by) God.” I Corinthians 1:2 phrase declares those “called saints” as simply “those sanctified (having been set apart) in Christ Jesus.“ So, according to these scriptures, a person’s “calling” represents that person’s position of having been loved and set apart to God more than what that person’s function is. Still, if a person is an engineer of some sort, does that person have as high a calling as a pastor? Also, how about a business executive, attorney, soldier, rancher or musician? Do any of them have a high calling? Do these functions have anything to do with God's purpose? We could ask the same questions of a mother with small children, grandparents babysitting their grandchildren, retirees headed off for a vacation or college students studying to pursue careers? Even though some of these functions are for pay while others are not, do they represent high callings?

As before stated, the “position of high calling” is much more important than its “function in high calling” so who one is, is more important than what one does. This does not deduct from the dedication and devotion of those whose daily activities are prioritized in sacred duties of church operations. However, what must be clearly said is that God’s purpose in a person’s life is the most important factor for deciding what the value of their occupation is. Possibly, a person’s mission is most important, most sacred and representative of that person’s high calling but only as it figures into God’s process in revealing His purpose. In this view, the purpose of God defines everything that we say, everything that we do, as well as everything that happens in this life.

From this, we can positively state that all things operate in God’s system by displaying His ways, His workings and His will; because He has designed all things for the purpose of what pleases Him. So, HOW things happen, WHEN things happen and TO WHOM things happen are not something that limited human minds can understand. Ephesians 3:11 speaks of things “according to a purpose of the ages, which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ephesians 1:11 says that everything was “being foreordained according to the purpose of Him of whom all things are working according to the direction of His will.” From this knowledge we can have peace and comfort in understanding that the display of all manner of life, including suffering, endurance, faith and love give evidence “that to those loving God all things do work together for good, to those who are the called according to purpose” (Romans 8:28).

 Youth Day Ministry Document 09-27-09