A Desire to Follow God’s Purpose for Your Life
God put us on this earth for two primary reasons: to know, walk with, and glorify God, and to bring forth fruit. The second is really an outgrowth of the first.
We are put here to know, to walk with, and to glorify God.
We were saved in order “that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:12).
Thousands of years ago, God spoke to the rebellious King Belshazzar by writing an inscription on the wall of the royal palace (see Daniel 5). The prophet Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall and saidthat it read, “You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting” (Daniel 5:27). Daniel had given King Belshazzar the reason for that judgment:
“And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of Heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, wives and your concubines, have drunk from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified” (Daniel 5:23).
The root of his problem was that he had failed to glorify God. His rebellion—as evidenced in his worship of false gods—was merely the outgrowth of that neglect. To glorify God means that you try to honor Him whenever you can. When you succeed in your endeavors—in ministry, business, sports, or family—you do not take personal credit but give the glory to God, “who holds your breath in His hand.”
We are to “bear much fruit.”
“By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” (John 15:8).
The concept of bearing fruit is used often in Scripture to describe the results of someone who truly has a relationship with Jesus Christ (see Mark 4:20; Colossians 1:10). According to Jesus, bearing fruit is not an option, but a mandate. He considers this aspect of the Christian life so important that He says, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit [God] takes away” (John 15:2).
A vine has very little use outside of bearing fruit. You cannot build houses or furniture with the wood of a vine. It is even of little use as fuel, for when it is cast into the fire, it flames up for a moment or two, then it is gone (Ezekiel 15:1–5). In other words, if it does not bear fruit, it is worthless.
In the Book of Hosea, God describes Israel as a vine that “brought forth fruit for himself” (Hosea 10:1). How true this is of so many today, even among professing Christians! They are far more interested in what God can do for them than in what they can do for God. The secret to living the Christian life to its fullest is to bear fruit.
God did not create you, and Christ did not die for you so that you might go through life getting; God created you and Christ purchased you that you might know Him and invest your life in giving.
