The point of it all, everything we do in life, is to glorify God. The word glorify is a word we don’t use a lot in everyday speech, but essentially it means we reflect the love and character of God in our thoughts, words, and actions. Everything we think should reflect the love and character of God. Everything we say should be full of love and truth. Our every action should demonstrate the love and trustworthiness of God.
Nothing else matters. All of the goals and dreams we had had for ourselves died when we committed our lives to Jesus. His dreams become our dreams. His goals become the things for which we work.
That is too much for some to give up. We rationalize by saying things like, “God gave me these passions in the first place, wouldn’t He want me to use them?” and “Doesn’t God want me to be happy?” God definitely gave you a unique set of skills, passion, and talents. He definitely wants you to use them, but He wants you to use them in the context of building His Kingdom and not your own. I do believe God wants us to be happy, but realize true happiness will be found only in His presence. No feeling of contentment can approach that of knowing you are doing exactly what He created you to do for exactly the purpose He created you to do it.
This life is not about you or your plans. The point of it all is to glorify God by bringing His Kingdom down to earth. It has been the point of it all since the very beginning. It was the point of everything Jesus did, taught, and endured. It has always been about living in relationship with our Creator, reflecting His beauty, and inviting others to know Him as we do.
This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus, but many so-called Christians miss this entirely. They want to pray a prayer and get back to their life with as few modifications as possible. When we ask Jesus to be our Lord, everything must change. Everything we knew about life has suddenly been reframed. Every thought, word, action, desire, dream, plan, and goal must be given up for the sake of furthering the Kingdom of God. He will give us new goals that may look very similar to our old ones, or they may be drastically different. Either way, our mission is to follow.
You cannot claim Jesus as Lord and live for yourself. It doesn’t work like that. It’s like committing yourself to your spouse and then continuing to date other people. You can’t have it both ways. You are either totally committed to Christ or you aren’t committed to Him at all. This doesn’t mean we’ll never mess up. God sees our heart. Thankfully He looks at us on a spiritual rather than physical level. He knows whether or not your heart is fully His. Deep down, you know it too. We pursue our own plans or we pursue God. We build His Kingdom or we build our own. Choose your path today, and choose it wisely.