PURPOSE Part 1

“I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.” Psalm 57:2 ESV

We are created for purpose. We all need something to aim for. Without purpose we can just fumble aimlessly around often going nowhere.

One of the toughest things when going through deep suffering is to find any degree of purpose. Suddenly out of nowhere you can find yourself in a dark bottomless pit and it can be very difficult to find any way forward.

Many people commit suicide or turn to drugs and alcohol during these difficult times because they want to escape the life of purposelessness they find themselves in. A life that feels although it is going nowhere, a life that has become no life.

The great and wonderful news of the Bible is that there is a God who, 1. has created us and 2. has a purpose in creating us.

When we get to know the God of the Bible as ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ we can then navigate our way in life with purpose because we know the God who works out His purposes in and through His creation and that includes you and me.

Unfortunately, we have the ugliness of sin all around us which many times messes things up considerably for us even when following Christ. The good news is that we can and must trust Jesus who not only deals with our sin, but knows all things from beginning to end.

In our own personal situation, we have found it incredibly difficult at times to fathom what God’s purpose is for us after having experienced such a life changing and desperately difficult situation in the aftermath of our son’s accident.

I’ve always known that God has a purpose for me and have lived that out most of my life. However, when faced with extreme difficulty it’s tough to know and focus on any kind of purpose.

This scripture in Psalm 57 encourages us in the fact that God says to David that He will fulfil His purpose for David. This Psalm was written when David is fleeing for his life from the threats of Saul.

Throughout the Psalm which is considered a lament Psalm, David is sure that out of his current distress, 1. God will be glorified and 2. God has a purpose for David’s current trouble.

A cry out to God in times of trouble is a good thing and one that God would expect. It’s when we let go of our inward distress that more often than not God is near and fully able to minister to us.

God minsters here to David. David is reminded that God is high and exalted above all things including King Saul. He is reminded probably from times past that in spite of his situation God WILL perform or fulfil His purpose in David.

The purposes of God always stand. Nothing and no-one can thwart Him. He alone has the last word. God wants to have the last word in our lives. It would be so easy for us to allow the circumstances we find ourselves in to control and dictate the course our lives take. But God always has other ideas.

Is it easy to give God control of our lives when we have been so badly beaten up by life? No it’s not. But ultimately it is the only way. All other paths lead to destruction and don’t give us real, lasting purpose. I have often said for myself that I need to find purpose in the pain. The pain of what has happened to us is not going to go away. It will be here to stay in varying degrees. But, there IS purpose in the pain. One of the reasons we created this website is because we knew it would give us a sense of purpose. It would help us to share our feelings, to share God’s word and hopefully help others who may have suffered.

Today take some time to read Psalm 57 and gain encouragement from what David shares.

Prayer: Dear God, You are the one who is far above all things. We look to You in our times of desperation, that You would install in us a sense of direction and purpose. That You would lift us to a place that we can see a way forward. Use us and our difficult circumstances for Your glory and our good. Amen.