Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.
–Jeremiah 1:5
Whether you believe it or not, God has created you for a great purpose. In Jeremiah 1:5, God said to the prophet, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Do you realize every life has been skillfully and wonderfully woven by God in the womb? That is why abortion is such a travesty. When you abort an unborn child, you are not just destroying a life; you are destroying God’s handiwork. He is the one who has skillfully and wonderfully made every human life.
Notice that God also told Jeremiah, “I consecrated you.” In other words, “Jeremiah, before you were born, I had a great purpose for your life.” Jeremiah’s purpose was to be a prophet to the nations. But God also has a unique purpose for your life. You are no accident. God created you for a unique purpose.
What is that purpose? We have to differentiate between God’s eternal purpose and God’s immediate purpose for your life. God’s eternal purpose for you is clear in the Bible: God created you to have fellowship with Him. Another of God’s eternal purposes for your life is that you be fashioned into the image of Christ. Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” God wants you to be just like His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. Those are God’s eternal purposes.
Now here is the $64,000 question: Why didn’t God take you to heaven the moment you were saved so that those purposes could be immediately fulfilled? After all, the Bible says in 1 John 3:2, “When He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” John was saying when we meet Christ, we are going to be immediately transformed to be like Him. Not only that, Revelation 22:3 says in heaven the curse of sin will be removed and we are going to have perfect fellowship with God. All of those things that hinder our relationship with God will be gone. So if God’s eternal purpose for us will be accomplished when we are with Him, why did God leave us here on earth? Why is He delaying that perfect fellowship with us? Why is He postponing His plan to conform us to the perfect image of His Son? Because in addition to God’s eternal purpose for us, we have an immediate purpose to fulfill in this life. God created us and left us here on earth for a reason.
Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Putting On Your Soul Shoes” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2011.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org