Jesus’ Design for Our Lives

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matthew 5:13).

If our only mission in life is to have a deep, personal relationship with Jesus, we will miss God’s larger objective. Jesus left us in a twisted, fallen world with another purpose in mind — to be lights in a darkened place and time. We may not desire to live in a sin-filled culture like America that rages more and more against God, but Jesus has a design for our lives. The reason we are here right now — the reason we exist — is for his glory! We are here to be his testimony, to make a difference, to be his living epistles to a world thirsting desperately for love.

Much of American culture has seeped into the church — including the exalted pursuit of happiness. We worship and behave as if God exists for us rather than the other way around. Our obedience to his Word is not to gain his favor and blessing but to grow in a relationship of love with him. We must not put the pursuit of material and fleshly satisfaction before a holy, loving God.

Paul said the Christians in Crete were “insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers … They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach” (Titus 1:10-11). In Crete, the church had become just as flesh-driven as the larger culture, and Paul had to confront the false doctrines that catered to people’s flesh.

Too often today the church seems more like the world than different from it. Determine in your heart to seek God’s face and have your life transformed by the gospel. You are here for a godly purpose: to hear from the Father and to reach out to others with Holy Spirit conviction and power. You are the salt of the earth!