What Is the Meaning of Life?
Our guest writer, Pastor Joel Kolb, gives us a new perspective on the meaning, plan, and purpose of life. This devotion for today is a condensed version of a sermon that he recently shared. 
I used to ask God questions.
When I was a child growing up on our family farm, I used to walk and talk with God. I would wander through the woods and literally talk out loud to God, and God would talk to me. I would ask God questions – really hard questions – and sometimes I would even hear answers.
One really hard question that I once heard someone ask was, “What is the meaning of life?” It was a rhetorical, supposedly unanswerable question. But somehow I knew that the answer was actually simple. It’s Jesus.
The Key to finding meaning
There is one key that reveals the purpose of our lives: Jesus. I know it seems too simple, like the “Sunday School” answer to every question. But Jesus really is the center of everything, and when our lives revolve around Him, they begin to make sense.
Jesus is the KEY to absolutely everything!
Knowing the mystery of His will.
Entering into his purpose
Yielding to Jesus’ Lordship.
Knowing the mystery of His will
We long to know God’s will for our own lives. We ask questions such as these: “What career path should I pursue?” “Who should I marry?” “What do I do if I think I’ve already made the wrong choices?”
I believe that each of us has infinite potential, but that God gives us choices. How can God be flexible enough to give us choices? Wouldn’t every bad decision that we make somehow mess up God’s perfect plan?
But when we are asking to know God’s will, we are actually asking God to steer us toward our greatest potential within the choices we have made.
Each of us has a narrative – an idea of how we think our lives are supposed to go. For the Christian, God is part of our narrative. We think God is supposed to make our lives better and take us to heaven when we die. But then, when our narratives don’t play out the way that we expect them to, we become disillusioned with God.
We think that God is supposed to intervene to make our personal narratives work out.
Romans 8:28 ESV And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Whose purpose? His purpose!
What is God’s purpose?
Entering into His purpose
The Bible shows us that God’s purpose is good because God is the ultimate good. Everything working together for good is assured because God is good, and His plan is for good.
In other words, it’s for God’s good … and our good, if we’re in agreement with God.
Let me spell it out… His purpose means it’s God’s narrative, not ours.
Could it be that our frustration with knowing God’s will is because we are trying to get God to fit into our narrative instead of us fitting into His? Are we more interested in finding our meaning and purpose in life than in fulfilling God’s plan?
So what is this plan? Not that Jesus has revealed God’s plan – He is God’s plan!
Romans 5:17 ESV For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
“Reign in life” – Jesus puts us back in charge of our destiny. The hope is that we will voluntarily align ourselves with God’s plan. Every choice, every decision is an opportunity to align with God and work toward His purpose.
Ephesians 1:10 talks about “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” “For the fullness of time” – is already in motion, but there is an end goal.
Here we are almost 2000 years later, and things seem messed up. But while the world’s population has grown astronomically since the time of Christ, and there are more unbelievers than ever, the percentage of believers to unbelievers has been increasing steadily. Today one third of the world professes faith in Jesus Christ.
So where is this plan headed?
Philippians 2:9-11 ESV …God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Eventually, everyone is going to say that Jesus is Lord. Presumably this means either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Yielding to Jesus’ Lordship (uniting all things in Him)
It was the expectation of the Jews that the Messiah would overthrow the kingdoms of this world (ie: the Romans) and establish God’s rule on this earth.
Jesus said that the Kingdom which they were looking for arrived when He arrived.
Mark 1:14–15 ESV Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
We know now that the “gospel” means that Jesus had to die and rise again to provide atonement for our sin, so that we could be spiritually saved and transformed. What Jesus did was actually bigger than overthrowing Rome. He undid the effects of Adam’s sin and defeated satan. That changed everything in the unseen spiritual realm
The declaration of the Apostles and of the early church was that “Jesus is Lord” – essentially that Jesus is the Divine Ruler of the universe, no matter who appears to be in charge.
2 Peter 3:9 ESV The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
God wants all (or as many as possible) to come to repentance. Repentance means having a change of mind and of heart. It is better that people should change their minds voluntarily and come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ than to find out the hard way.
This means letting go of our own narratives and embracing His plan, His purpose, and His will for our lives. How do we do this?
On the larger scale it means that we join God in His quest to bring the whole world under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is the goal of missions. We go as Jesus did. We go humbly, identifying with the people that we are trying to reach. We share the Gospel both through words and actions.
In every place we go, we declare “Jesus is Lord over…(name your city or region)!”
We are all missionaries and ministers in the places where we have influence. It begins with me. Everything in me must come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
If our lives are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then God can use us to reach others through our influence. As you come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, things under your influence will also align with God’s plan and purpose.
Jesus is the KEY to absolutely everything!
Knowing the mystery of His will.
Entering into his purpose
Yielding to Jesus’ Lordship
About the writer:
Joel and Karie Kolb serve at Spring City Fellowship in Spring City, PA, where Joel is the Lead Pastor. Karie is a career missionary and a Christian counselor who has spent her life serving the Lord. Together Joel and Karie serve the needs of international ministry leaders and workers from both a pastoral and a cross-culturally informed perspective.
You can listen to Joel’s sermons on the church website: http://www.springcityfellowship.com/
