{"id":1196,"date":"2013-08-16T17:54:05","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T17:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.watchmanmedia.org\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2016-08-06T16:58:31","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T16:58:31","slug":"what-is-the-meaning-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/?p=1196","title":{"rendered":"What is the meaning of Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LIFE.PURPOSE\"At some point every one of us confronts the question: Who am I? Other questions may be even deeper than this one- for example: What is the meaning of life itself? How do I find and fulfill the central purpose of my life? Why am I here? Where am I going? As human beings we are all on a search for significance.<\/p>\n

We desire to make a difference. We long to live a legacy. All other standards of success-wealth, power, position, knowledge, friendships, titles-grow tiny and hollow if we do not satisfy this deeper longing.<\/p>\n

The Russian novelist, Tolstoy, put it this way: What is life for? To die? To kill myself at once? No, I am afraid. To wait for death till it comes? I fear that even more. Then I must live. But what for? In order to die? And I could not escape from that circle.\u2019\u2019The Bible is the only book which answers all these questions which tells us our:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0Origin:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where we came from?<\/li>\n
  2. \u00a0Identity:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Who are we?<\/li>\n
  3. \u00a0Meaning:\u00a0\u00a0 Why are we here?<\/li>\n
  4. \u00a0Morality:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How should we live?<\/li>\n
  5. \u00a0Destiny:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Where are we going?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We are individuals created in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:27; Psalms139:14) Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, we are creatures of supreme worth. We are loved by God and endowed with certain God-given rights and responsibilities. We were all put on earth to give glory to God.\u00a0 (John 3:16-18; 1:12; Galatians 4:5)<\/p>\n

    Since Adam and Eve sinned, each of us remains in that fallen state so that the choices we make have implications in eternity. The choice we make is to accept the ransom that Jesus paid in order to free us from eternal separation from the Father and welcome us into His eternal presence.<\/p>\n

    We then serve Jesus Christ as ambassadors for Him to help others make that informed choice. (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21) Since God loved us, we should love Him and others. The Bible tells us God set eternity in the heart of man. \u00a0He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]\u2014yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP) and the \u201cwhole duty of man\u201d is to fear God and keep His commandments\u201d (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)<\/p>\n

    Lastly like it or not we will all die. If we believe in Jesus Christ we know where we are going. We will be with Him forever. God\u2019s infinite justice demands that He punish our sins, but because of His infinite love, He has taken our punishment on Himself by dying on the cross. (Isaiah 53:4, 10, 12; Romans 3:26) This was the only way he could justify us sinners (John 14:6) His gift of salvation from eternal punishment is free to all people of the world. (John 3:16)<\/p>\n

    This gift cannot be earned through good works or any kind of merit, and God cannot force us to love and serve Him, each one of us must choose for ourselves whom we will serve. (Joshua 24:15; John 3:18) All the answers to all these questions depend on the existence of God.\u00a0 For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory.<\/p>\n

    If God exists, then there is ultimate meaning and purpose to our lives. And if there is a real purpose to your life, then there must be a real right and wrong way to live this life. Choices we make have consequences because they not only affect you here, but will affect you in eternity. On the other hand if at all there is no God then our lives ultimately mean nothing.<\/p>\n

    Since there is no enduring purpose to life, there is no right or wrong way to live our lives. And it doesn\u2019t matter how you live or what you believe\u2014your destiny is dust. If you want to ignore the overwhelming evidence all around you, as someone said \u201cyou are free to do so, you can reject Christ, but you cannot honestly say there\u2019s not enough evidence to believe in Him. (See Romans 1:19-22)<\/p>\n

    The most important event in the history of mankind is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The most important fact in the life of mankind is the reality of God and His divine revelation to us through His Holy Word.<\/p>\n

    The most important decision in the life of any human is the choice they must make in regard to their personal faith in Jesus Christ. Our lives have eternal value because an infinite and personal God explains where we came from, why we are here, and where we would go after death.<\/p>\n

    \n

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    At some point every one of us confronts the question: Who am I? Other questions may be even deeper than this one- for example: What is the meaning of life itself? How do I find and fulfill the central purpose of my life? Why am I here? Where am I going? As human beings we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-discipleship","8":"wp-image-borders","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/LIFE.PURPOSE.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bgnN-ji","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14982,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions\/14982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}