Q - What is the purpose of life?

A - In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop and that will be the end of my body, but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on Earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on Earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God and, until you figure that out, life isn't going to make much sense.

We often hear people say that person really did something with his/her life, they wrote many great books, they made tons of money, they have traveled the world and really enjoyed their life.

But is any of those things really great or even important? I believe all that is important in this life is what we do for Jesus Christ, that is the true scale to measure a person's life and not worldly things because none of it means anything.

Every person on earth will very soon be standing before Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Where you will have to give an accounting of how you spent your life. Did you spend it on yourself and earthly treasures that won't last? Or have you spent your life serving Jesus and investing in Eternal Treasures that will last forever?

Life is a series of problems; either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be happy here on Earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character; in Christ likeness.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness which is 'my problem,' 'my issues,' 'my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and other people.

I have been sick a lot in my life, my health has never been good, my life at times is full of pain and misery, but I discovered that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of people, God has not yet healed me or make it easy for me. It has been difficult for me and yet God has strengthened my character, given me a ministry of helping other people, given me a testimony, and drawn me closer to Him and to people. We have to learn to deal with both the good times and the bad times of life.

We need to ask ourselves; Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

I for one have chosen to serve God and I no longer care about this life or this world, Jesus Christ is the most important person or thing in my life.

Can you say the same? If not then you haven't found the purpose of life.