Why Am I Here? Why Did God Create Me?

This is one of those questions that most of us ask many times throughout our lives. When we are young, we usually answer it based upon what our  parents or teachers tell us and that usually has to do with some kind of career. When we hit our teens and  early 20’s we pretty much decide that to answer that question for myself! I get to do what I want and I don’t want anyone telling ME what I should do with MY life!

As we get older, we either find ourselves moving closer to what we believe to be our purpose, or getting further from achieving it. Usually we find ourselves going to work, getting married, having kids, possibly getting divorced, and generally getting pretty much overwhelmed with “life.” When we start asking “Why Am I Here?” at this stage of our lives, it takes on a different meaning. It may be a sense of curiosity that will help us redirect our lives, or it may be something more serious – a quiet sense of panic, or even a sense of desperation that is accompanied by other questions like, “Am I wasting my life?” “Have I missed the purpose of my life?” “Is it too late for me to do anything of value with my life?”

As a pastor, I have always told people that the Bible is not a “rule book” but a MANUAL for life. If  you want to know how life works why not consult the owner’s manual? If you own a Porsche, you probably wouldn’t take it to a Ford dealer; and if you want answers about your life, why would you go anywhere else except to the one who created you and gave you your life? If you take your car to a mechanic, they’ll usually hook it up to a computer for some diagnostic evaluation, and then do some troubleshooting to see what they can do to get it running better.

Here’s some diagnostic help from Jesus.
“If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me. Matthew 10:38-39 – The Message

Pastor Dick Brookes, Interim Senior Pastor; The Coila Church
dickbrookesusmc@gmail.com
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I'm sure I'm dating myself, but in the 1970's I knew some people who took time in their lives to go and “find themselves”. While getting time away for R&R is never a bad thing, I'm not sure many of my generation were able to accomplish this lofty goal. Volumes upon volumes of self-actualization books have been written to help us find the secret of life, and I've read some, but I always came away feeling empty; like there was more. The truth is: outside of Jesus Christ we cannot really know the answer to this question. It is only in knowing the love of God through Jesus Christ that we can know and experience our real purpose.

In the Bible God tells us, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” (Jer 1:5) Long before even time existed God knew everything about each of us; (and he loved us). Listen to the words of King David in Psalm 139: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:14-16) That is an amazing statement!
Do you sense the intimacy that God desires with each of us? Do you sense that God sees you as his beautiful creation? God knew everything about each of us long before he created us. He knew our successes and our failures, our faults and sins, yet he created us because he loved us and he desired intimacy with each one of us.

In the Book of Revelation we read that “[God] created all things, and by his pleasure they exist and were created” (Rev 4:11). We were created by God and for God; for his good pleasure. The Creator of the universe, the mighty and awesome God took pleasure in creating you!

Why am I here? Why did God create me? The answer really is a simple one: Because God is a being of love and he desires to love you and for you to return that love. You were created because God wanted you. You were created because he wanted to love you and be loved by you. That is your purpose and mine: to love and be loved by God.

Pastor Jim French, Rector, St. Luke's Church Cambridge
pastor.jim.137@gmail.com
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These questions have both plagued and challenged mankind for generations. If we are willing to accept the Bible as truth, then we know the answer to "where did we come from?" According to Scripture, we were created by God. So the next question is…why? After all, He is God, and as such, He certainly doesn't need us for anything -- so why did He create us? "Why are we here?" is a question that can best be answered by looking at how the Bible explains it.

Beginning in Genesis Chapter 1, we read that after each phase of creation, God "saw that it was good." According to Scripture, once He completed creating the heavens and the earth, the plant life and all the animals, He created man: So God created man in His own  image, in the image of God created He him; male and female  created He them (Genesis 1:27).We read on and discover that He spoke well of the male and female and showed His pleasure by entrusting them with His creation: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, As part of His blessing, He gave us  stewardship over the earth and its other life forms: and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which
is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so (Genesis 1:28-30).At the end of Genesis Chapter 1, we read how He felt about his completed creation: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day(Genesis 1:31).

God created us because it pleased Him to do so. This message is consistent throughout the pages of Scripture, and nowhere said more succinctly than by the Apostle John in Revelation 4:11, where he has a vision of Heaven and witnesses the four elders prostrate before the Lord of all Creation, saying: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. We are created for His pleasure. From the first page of Scripture to the last, that message is clear. We are created for His pleasure. Further, the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:16: For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him.

What do you and I do about it? How can you and I, one person - possibly please such a big, huge, infinite God? The Bible gives us those answers too. For now, we can rest in this truth - none of us is here by accident. We were planned and wanted by our Heavenly Father from before the beginning of time (Psalm 139). We may live 60, 70, or 80 years here. But that is just a tiny little speck on the yardstick of life, because we’re going to live forever with God. So the reason we’re alive, the reason God has left us here is to get us ready for eternity. That’s the reason for our existence.

Pastor Richard Setzer Sr.
Associate Pastor at Jacob’s Well Fellowship
resetzer@gmail.com