I entered this phrase into an internet search engine: “I’m looking for a purpose.” The results were remarkably alike. Here is a summary of the solutions waiting to be found by those seeking their life’s purpose:
Go and find out what you enjoy doing to find your purpose.
Listen to what you feel to find your purpose.
Ask yourself some questions and, through the answers you give, find your purpose.
Listen to a TED talk, ask yourself some questions, and you will find your purpose.
All these turn the search for your purpose inward to what you feel you should do. The writers uniformly bemoan the idea that your purpose could come from anywhere except inside yourself.
Even as these writers assert your purpose must come from within, they admit that finding your purpose this way takes much time and is rather unpredictable. One writer likened finding their purpose to chasing a butterfly: pursue it actively, and it flies away, but go about your business, and you may find it randomly landing on your shoulder. It is a lovely thought but gives no peace to the one who is drifting through life with no direction, every moment tinted with aimless, pointless gray.
Among so many who encourage you to look inward to find your purpose, God teaches that we should look upward. Rather than following our unpredictable and deceptive feelings about life, we ought to find purpose in seeking and attaining eternal life. Your life on earth has but one purpose: to do the will of God, so that you may enter everlasting joy, peace, and rest with Him and all the saved forever (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; Romans 6:20-23; Revelation 21:1-5). Now that you know your purpose, the question is, “Will you fulfill it?”