Psalm 139:13-18 Amplified Bible
13
For You formed my innermost parts;
You knit me [together] in my mother’s womb.
14
I will give thanks and praise to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was being formed in secret,
And intricately and skillfully formed [as if embroidered with many colors] in the depths of the earth.
16
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were appointed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them [even taking shape].
17
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18
If I could count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Finding God’s Purpose for My Life
I can remember being a young teenager, on summer vacation at my family’s country place.
A lot of time was spent in the back of my Dad’s old 1968 International Pick Up truck, staring out into the vast fields and meadows and trees and ponds beyond wondering: WHAT my purpose in life was.
I fully knew that God created me for a reason, but I couldn’t understand what he wanted me to do with my life.
I was so busy trying to think my own way to live my own life, not finding God’s purpose for my life, that I had basically immobilized myself in that idyllic place.
It was naïve of me to think at that time that this feeling of uncertainty would disappear as I got older and smarter and wiser and I thought far more mature.
“It’s only teenagers who struggle with the big life questions,” I thought to myself – adults [Mom and Dad] have it made in the shade with their careers.
After – all, Mom and Dad had bought this great 40 acre place in the country.
I laugh now, thinking about how much I had to learn then.
Now, as a 60 plus year old adult, I find myself thinking and praying through so many of life’s biggest questions I never thought to ask myself then.
A lot of those questions, I’m no more certain of the answer now than I was as a teenager.
But I am more confident in God’s word, and I’m able to rest in that more than I did back then.
God’s word has been the biggest answer for me on my quest to finding God’s purpose for my life.
Does God Have a Purpose For Me and My Life?
If you’re asking yourself this question, I know from experience that it’s likely causing you some stress.
I want you to know that God wants you to rest in the knowledge of something beautiful:
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you , for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” – Psalm 139:13-14
Does that sound like a God who wants you to live in stress and toil away about missing your purpose?
It certainly doesn’t sound that way to me.
The God described in that beautiful psalm (my personal favorite psalm) is an intricately and intimately involved God.
That is not the kind of God who doesn’t have a plan for us, or is content to let us waste away our remaining days in the worry of being unsure of your purpose.
Life Makes Sense: God’s Story of You
Psalm 139:15-16Amplified Bible
15
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was being formed in secret,
And intricately and skillfully formed [as if embroidered with many colors] in the depths of the earth.
16
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were appointed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them [even taking shape].
We love stories, but it’s surprising how easily we can end up missing the stories God has written for our lives.
Winston Churchill once famously claimed that history was simply “one big years long collection of one thing after another.”
In other words, he was claiming there was no “just one” story behind our experiences in life, only a years long weaving of numerous series of events.
Few things are more deadening to your soul than thinking that your life ultimately means little more than we live through several one thing after another.
Yet that’s how we often find ourselves feeling – no matter how old we are in life.
On many days we view our jobs or careers or families as where we have “ended up” in life.
In fact, it can seem a bit overly presumptuous to think there’s only one master plan and master planner behind whatever situation you and I are in right now.
But the Bible tells us that the events of our lives make sense because they are part of a much larger story.
The struggles of last month or the victories of yesterday that we may claim in the next few weeks are not simply chance occurrences.
They are part of a intricately weaved story line that is going somewhere.
The work you do, the people you share life with, the abilities you have, and the weaknesses you struggle with are all part of a collection of elements intended to make for a really good story—the story of you – that’s really God’s story of you.
Do you believe this?
What Does God’s Living Word Say About Purpose?
I want to share a couple more Bible verses about purpose with you.
I’m sharing them in a specific order as it’s going to help round out the edges of this devotional, and I pray will truly help you to be able to say with confidence, “God has a purpose for my life.”
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
God has a plan for your life… and what’s better, it’s a good plan. There’s nothing in that plan that says God intends harm or unhappiness for your life. God KNOWS the plans he has for you, and that includes plans to prosper you, keep you safe, give you beautiful hope, and the promise of a future.
Now, I want you to keep that knowledge and promise in mind as we read the next couple verses together.
“I know you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” – Job 42:2
That verse is referring to God, not us.
God can do all things.
His plans cannot be thwarted.
So when you’re trying to find your God-given purpose, take comfort in the fact that there is NOTHING that can ruin God’s plans.
Not even your own indecision, or fear, or pride… NOTHING.
I want you to whisper that to yourself and pray thanks to God for that fact.
God has a purpose for my life, and God has a purpose for your life.
There’s absolutely, positively nothing we (or our circumstances can do) to ruin, or destroy or ever erase that purpose.
Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.” –Acts 13:36
There’s a couple really interesting things in this Bible verse about purpose.
As I’ve struggled through finding God’s purpose for my life, I’ve forgotten a couple key things that this verse makes very clear:
- We are serving God’s purpose... not our own. Did you notice that in the verse above? It says David had served God’s purpose in his life. I think often (whether innocent or not), we end up searching for and serving our own purposes instead of God’s. This is something we need to avoid.
- The other thing I want to pull out of that verse is that David didn’t pass away until he had fulfilled God’s purpose in his life. So when you think about fulfilling your God given purpose, know with confidence that the purpose is actually God’s, and he’ll keep you on this earth until that purpose is fulfilled.
How to Know God’s Purpose For Our Lives
“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” –Colossians 1:16
This Bible verse about purpose, like the one above about David, is also helpful as I find myself, along with you, on the journey of finding God’s purpose for my life.
This verse makes it clear again, that the purpose is ultimately God’s, and not our own.
This doesn’t mean we are devoid of purpose… in fact, our purpose is FOR him.
We were created through him and for him.
This is where the lights, for me, started to come on while I was finding God’s purpose for my life.
Check out this next Bible verse about purpose:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” –1st Peter 2:9
Isn’t that beautiful?
If we know Jesus as our Savior, we are chosen, royal, holy… his special possession.
And why do we get this privilege?
So that we can declare his praises! Bingo!
Right there we have uncovered and discovered our main purpose for God.
We do each have different and unique ways of living out our purpose.
Down at the root of it all, as Christ followers, our main purpose is to glorify God and to declare his praises and to point our neighbors to Christ through our love.
If you seek to do this in everything you do… you won’t miss out on fulfilling your God given purpose.
Identifying Your Unique Purpose
16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers; 17 [I always pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may grant you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation [that gives you a deep and personal and intimate insight] into the true knowledge of Him [for we know the Father through the Son]. 18 And [I pray] that the eyes of your heart [the very center and core of your being] may be enlightened [flooded with light by the Holy Spirit], so that you will know and cherish the [a]hope [the divine guarantee, the confident expectation] to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the [b]saints (God’s people), 19 and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength 20 which He [c]produced in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion [whether angelic or human], and [far above] every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and world but also in the one to come. Ephesians 1:16-21 Amplified
God’s Desire and Purpose: Our Growing in Wisdom
Growing in wisdom is about cultivating a character that is Christlike.
If we want that wisdom, then the words of Ephesians 1 are a great discovery and and an even greater source of divine encouragement.
What is striking about these verses is how they tell us we don’t have to figure this all out on our own.
It’s not a project for which God gives us a textbook and tests us with a final exam at the end of life.
God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is absolutely never a “hands off” teacher.
In Ephesians 1 Paul explains that he prays for people to have wisdom, and he asks God to be involved in the process—because that is what God promises. Paul goes on to mention “the Spirit of wisdom,” and he isn’t asking only for the Spirit to help us; Paul asks that the Spirit of wisdom be given to us.
Why? So that we may know God better.
Suddenly this matter of gaining wisdom is not just about anyone or everyone learning some Christian way of living.
It is about an interactive God who wants to live in interaction with and within us and be the absolute most vital part of our faith growth by becoming part of us.
We can simplify all that to this: God wants us to have wisdom.
So we can make this prayer our own, saying, “I want to have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation because I absolutely want to know my God better.”
God’s Desire For Us: Eyes Open, Mind Illuminated
Ephesians 1:18-21Amplified Bible
18 And [I pray] that the eyes of your heart [the very center and core of your being] may be enlightened [flooded with light by the Holy Spirit], so that you will know and cherish the [a]hope [the divine guarantee, the confident expectation] to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the [b]saints (God’s people), 19 and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength 20 which He [c]produced in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion [whether angelic or human], and [far above] every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and world but also in the one to come.
What a blessing it is to read this prayer of the apostle Paul!
He asks that God will open, or enlighten, the eyes of our hearts.
Why?
That we may “know him better,” have “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,” and know the hope of all that God promises to us.
With hearts open to the wonder of all that God has done, we are empowered by his Spirit to live faithfully and purposely and wisely for him, as Jesus did.
When we are open to God’s working in and through our lives, we are like a blank page on which he writes his poetry, a blank empty canvas on which he works his artistry, softened clay with which he molds, shapes and transforms his vessels.
Perhaps the right combination is openheartedness and singlemindedness—our heart and mind, hands and feet, equally devoted to the God of infinite wisdom.
Lent is an excellent time to have the eyes of our hearts opened and our ears and our minds illuminated to absolutely all of that our Lord has done, all that he can do in our lives, and all that we can look absolutely look forward to in sure hope.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God of ALL truth, sometimes I not sure if I’m actually hearing your voice, or if it’s just my own thoughts or even another spirit. Sharpen my spiritual hearing, Lord, so I can recognize your words when you are speaking to me. Help me know it’s really you, with no doubt or second-guessing. When I’m asking for your guidance in important decisions, give me your peace that surpasses understanding with your answer. Help me remember that your words to me will never go against your written word in the Bible. Give me a clear mind and push out all my confusion. Savior Jesus, encourage us in the single minded pursuit of being open and opened up to your greater wisdom and your working and your desires and purposes in our lives. In your name we live.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum.
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 