Daily Devotional – July 1, 2020

At a halfway point on more than one level, right? If you're watching at noon today, so it's halfway through the day and this is Wednesday or hump day, get over today and the week is half over and well June is history, first day of July, the first day of the second half of the year, so the halfway point of 2020 is now, has now been reached.

I'm trying to figure out how I feel about that, if this year is just flying by or if it's dragging by, it seems like it's gone pretty quickly this first half of the year. I'm wondering if the second half is going to drag or if it's going to be over before we know it.

I, I don't know, I'll let you know in December how I feel about the second half of the year. Well anyway, why are you here? Now I don't mean why are you here listening to this broadcast today, but why are you here?

Why do you exist? Why are you on the planet? Many days I listen to a little five-minute pep talk from a motivational speaker, his name is Darren Hardy, and a week or so ago he did a series of broadcasts that he entitled how to live to a hundred plus, how to live to a hundred, be a hundred years old or more, and he had six different ideas to, to help you have a longer life, to increase the longevity of your life.

Although the way things are going these days, I'm not so sure that's a particularly desirable goal, is it? I, yeah, I don't know. Well nevertheless, normally it is a pretty desirable goal to have a long, long productive life that is marked by happiness and so forth.

So anyway, Darren Hardy offered six important tips and all things, that all things being equal would translate into a longer life. One of those six items that he said is essential for longer living is a sense of purpose.

You've got to have a purpose for being here, and he rightly pointed out that many people end up start, they start declining in their health, physically, mentally, and so forth pretty rapidly after they retire from their lifelong career.

It's like they completely lose their sense of purpose. They don't, they don't any longer understand, you know, why am I here? What's my purpose for getting up in the morning? And so he rightly points out having a sense of purpose is absolutely critical.

Which, by the way, points out that your sense of purpose cannot be tied exclusively to your, to your job or your career. You need a bigger, more overarching reason for, for existence, for being here. So whether you not, whether or not you want to live to be a hundred-plus or just get through 2020, why are you here?

What's your purpose? The old Puritan Thomas Manton wrote this, he said, we were made for God. It is the end of our creation. God made us for himself, and man can never be happy without him. Now, Manton is expressing a truth that's found in many places in the Bible, but succinctly stated in Romans chapter 11 verse 36, where Paul writes this, he says, for from the Lord God and through him and to him are all things.

Did you get that? For from the Lord and through the Lord and to the Lord are all things. To him be glory forever. So whether we know it or not, I believe that the single deepest root of modern man's state of unhappiness is his denial that we were even made in the first place.

That's a starting point, isn't it? Paul says, for from him are all things. And we, I'm talking about we as a culture, as a society, we have essentially dismissed that notion out of hand. That we were not made by God.

So you take the creation of man off the table, and seriously, we're left ultimately with meaninglessness. No reason for existence. Our existence is just a matter of happenstance. So why am I here then?

If I'm just here by chance, and by some evolutionary process, and it just so happens that I happen to exist, and something else didn't exist in my place, then what's the purpose of it all? And the question then leaves a scrambling for some totally unsatisfactory answers, like, well, you know, something to the effect that we're here, we are here, we exist in our lifetime to leave things better for those who follow us.

Mm-hmm. Okay. How's that working out? How's that working out? Clearly, there's so much more to this than can be covered in a few minutes in a middle-of-the-day broadcast on your Wednesday. There's just so much more that can be said about this.

Suffice it to say that the Bible is replete with statements about being in a state of blessedness or happiness, and they're all connected to a relationship with our Creator, discovering what He is like, learning what He likes, having our lives transformed accordingly.

In other words, the Bible encourages us to pursue the chief end of man. What is that? The basic purpose for our existence? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. So why are you here? Ultimately, you are here to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

Now, there may be scores of other sub-purposes in your life, but they all have to tie back to that big overarching purpose for existence. I am here because God has placed me here, and my whole purpose of life is to bring glory to Him in whatever my hands find to do, and in doing that, to enjoy Him forever.

So whatever other purpose you have in your life, I trust it's subordinate to and informed by that fundamental purpose. Glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That, I believe, is a significant key to true happiness.

Well, I hope that encourages you to give some thought to what you're doing and why you're doing it, your purpose for existence, your purpose for being here. So as we close today, let's pray that God will renew our sense of overarching purpose, fundamental purpose, foundational purpose for our existence.

Our Father and our God, there are some listening today who are probably dealing with a great sense of unhappiness. I pray that as they consider why they're feeling so unhappy, that they might also consider what purpose are they pursuing.

Is their unhappiness tied exclusively to their discomfort, and they can find no purpose greater than trying to be comfortable? Oh, Father, I pray, give us the desire to pursue a life that ultimately sees itself existing to glorify You and enjoying You forever, and may that then inform every other purpose that we have in our day-to-day living.

This we pray in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your day today, and I trust that you get over the hump today, and you continue the slide into the second half of the week and the second half of the year, that you will know God's blessing, you will know a sense of happiness, because you're pursuing the right purpose.

Good day. God bless.