God Has an Eternal Purpose for You

Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.
—-Romans 8:29

When we talk about the power of God’s positive purpose for your life, we need to clarify what we mean. First, we must understand that God has an eternal purpose for you and for me. His greatest desire is that we trust Christ for our salvation from sin.

I realize many of you are already Christians. But I also realize that some people reading this have never personally trusted in Christ as their Savior. If you don’t take away anything else from this devotion, know this: there are not many different ways to heaven; there is only one way to heaven–and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). If there were many ways to heaven, then God didn’t need to send His Son, Jesus, to die on a cross. But God says the only way to be saved is by trusting in what Christ did on the cross. The only way to fulfill God’s eternal purpose for our lives is by believing that when He died two thousand years ago, Jesus took the punishment from God that you and I deserve. Only by trusting in Jesus Christ can we experience salvation, the forgiveness of our sins. That is God’s ultimate, eternal purpose for you and for me.

But God’s eternal purpose for us does not stop at the moment of salvation; it also involves our becoming more like Christ. The apostle Paul writes, “Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). So God’s eternal purpose is for you to be conformed to the image of His Son. He is using every circumstance in your life to make you more like Jesus Christ.

God’s primary desire for your life is not that you build a successful career, experience a fulfilling marriage, or enjoy a long and healthy life here on earth. None of those objectives is God’s primary eternal purpose for your life. God’s one eternal desire for you is that you trust Christ for your salvation and then mirror the attitudes, actions, and affections of His Son, Jesus Christ. In fact, in the preceding verse, Paul teaches that everything that happens in your life is orchestrated by God to achieve that result. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

The “good” for which all things in your life are working together is God’s eternal, positive purpose for your life. God is using every success, as well as every failure, every joy, and every disappointment to make you more like the Son with whom He is so greatly pleased.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “The Power of a Positive Purpose” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2016.

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.