Here are Some common ones That Drives People:

Many people are driven by guilt:They
spend their entire lives running from regrets
and hiding their shame. Guilt-driven people are
manipulated by memories. They allow their past
to control their future. They often unconsciously
punish themselves by sabotaging their
own success. In the Bible, when a man named
Cain killed his brother, his guilt disconnected
him from feeling God’s presence, and God said,
“You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” That describes most people today—wandering
through life without a purpose.
We are products of our past, but we don’t
have to be prisoners of it. God’s purpose is never
limited by your past. He turned a murderer
named Moses into a compassionate leader, and
a coward named Gideon into a courageous
hero, and he can do amazing things with the rest
of your life, too. God specializes in giving people
a fresh start. The Bible says, “What happiness for
those whose guilt has been forgiven. . . What relief
for those who have confessed their sins and God has
cleared their record.”
Many people are driven by fear: These fears
may be a result of a traumatic experience, an
unrealistic expectation, growing up in a high control
home, or even genetic predisposition.
Regardless of the cause, fear-driven people often
miss great opportunities because they’re afraid to
venture out. Instead, they play it safe, avoiding
risks and trying to maintain the status quo.
Fear is a self-imposed prison that will keep
you from becoming what God intends for you
to be. The only way to defeat fear is to move
against it with the spiritual weapons of faith
and love. The Bible says, “Well-formed love
banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful
life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not
yet fully formed in love.”

Many people are driven by materialism.
Their desire to acquire becomes the whole goal
of their lives. This drive to always get more is
based on the misconception that having more
will make me more happy, more important, and
more secure—but all three ideas are untrue.
Possessions only provide temporary happiness.
Because things do not change, we eventually
become bored with them and then want a
newer, bigger, better version.
It’s also a myth that if I get more, I will be
more important. Self-worth and net worth
are not the same. Your value is not determined
by your valuables. God says the most valuable
things in life are not things!
The most common myth about money is
that having more will make me more secure. It
won’t. Wealth can be lost instantly through a
variety of uncontrollable factors. Real security
can only be found in that which can never be
taken from you—your relationship to God.

Many people are driven by the need for
approval. They allow the expectations of parents
or spouses or children or teachers or
friends to control their lives. Many adults are
still trying to earn the approval of unpleasable
parents. Others are driven by peer pressure,
always worried by what others might think.
Unfortunately, those who follow the crowd
usually get lost in it. I don’t know all the keys
to success, but one key to failure is to try to
please everyone. Being controlled by the opinions
of other is a guaranteed way to miss God’s
purposes for your life. Jesus said, “No one can
serve two masters.”
There are other forces that can drive your
life, but they all lead to the same dead end:
unused potential, unnecessary stress, and an
unfulfilled life.
That’s why nothing matters more than
knowing God’s purpose for your life, and
nothing can compensate for not knowing it—
not success, wealth, fame, or pleasure. Without
a purpose, life is motion without meaning,
activity without direction, and events without
reason. Without a purpose, life is trivial, petty,
and pointless.

What Drives Your Life?

Everyone’s life is driven by something.
Most dictionaries define the verb drive as
“to guide, to control, or to direct.” Whether
you are driving a car, a nail, or a golf ball, you
are guiding, controlling, and directing it at that
moment. What is the driving force in your life?
Right now you may be driven by a problem,
a pressure, or a deadline. You may be driven by
a painful memory, a haunting fear, or an
unconscious belief. There are hundreds of circumstances,
values, and emotions that can
drive your life.

You Are Not an Accident

You are not an accident.
Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and
your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may
not have planned you, but that doesn’t mean
God didn’t plan you. He works even through
human error and failings, and he was not
surprised by your birth; in fact, he expected it.
It is not fate, nor chance, nor luck, nor
coincidence that you are breathing at this very
moment. You are alive because God wanted
to create you! The Bible says, “The LORD will
fulfill his purpose for me.”
God prescribed every single detail of your
body. He deliberately chose your race, the color
of your skin, your hair, and every other feature.
He custom-made your body just the way he
wanted it. He also determined the natural
talents you would possess and the uniqueness
of your personality. The Bible says, “You [God]
know me inside and out, you know every bone in
my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit
by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into
something.”
Because God made you for a reason, he also
decided when you would be born and how long
you would live. He planned the days of your
life in advance, choosing the exact time of your
birth and death. The Bible says, “You saw me
before I was born and scheduled each day of my
life before I began to breathe. Every day was
recorded in your Book!”
God also planned where you’d be born and
where you’d live for his purpose. Your race and
nationality are no accident. God left no detail
to chance. He planned it all for his purpose.
The Bible says, “From one man he made every
nation . . . and he determined the times set for
them and the exact places where they should
live.” Nothing in your life is arbitrary. It’s all
for a purpose.
Most amazing, God decided how you would
be born. Regardless of the circumstances of
your birth or who your parents are, God had a
plan in creating you. It doesn’t matter whether
your parents were good, bad, or indifferent.
God knew that those two individuals possessed
exactly the right genetic makeup to create the
custom “you” he had in mind. They had the
DNA God wanted to make you. While there
are illegitimate parents, there are no illegitimate
children. Some children may be
unplanned by their parents, but they are not
unplanned by God.
God’s purposes take into account human
mistakes, even sin. This does not mean that God
causes or condones sin or evil—he does not—
but it does mean God is able to redeem any and
all situations and use them for his own good.

So regardless of the circumstances of your
birth, you can celebrate the fact that God
created you to be you. God never does anything
accidentally, and he never makes mistakes. He
has a reason for everything he creates. Every
plant and every animal was planned by God for
a purpose, and every person was designed with
a purpose in mind, too. God’s motive for
creating you is his love. The Bible says, “Long
before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us
in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love.”
God was thinking of you even before he
made the world. In fact, that’s why he created
it! God designed this planet’s environment just
so we could live in it. We are the focus of his
love and the most valuable of all his creation.
The Bible says, “God decided to give us life
through the word of truth so we might be the most
important of all the things he made.” This is
how much God loves and values you!
God is not haphazard; he planned it all with
great precision. The more physicists, biologists,
and other scientists learn about the universe, the
better we understand how it is uniquely suited
for our existence, custom-made with the exact
specifications that make human life possible.
Dr. Michael Denton, senior research fellow
in human molecular genetics at the University
of Otago in New Zealand, has concluded, “All
the evidence available in the biological sciences
supports the core proposition . . . that the
cosmos is a specially designed whole, with life
and mankind as its fundamental goal and
purpose, a whole in which all facets of reality
have their meaning and explanation in this
central fact.”The Bible said the same thing
thousands of years earlier: “God formed the
earth. . . . He did not create it to be empty but
formed it to be inhabited.”
Why did God do all this? Why did he bother
to go to all the trouble of creating a universe for
us? Because he is a God of love. This kind of love
is difficult to fathom, but it’s fundamentally
reliable. You were created as a special object of
God’s love! God made you so he could love
you. This is a truth to build your life on.
The Bible tells us, “God is love.” It doesn’t
say God has love. He is love! Love is the essence
of God’s character. Now God is perfect and
complete in himself, so he didn’t need to create
you. He wasn’t lonely. But he wanted to make
you in order to express his love. God says, “I
have carried you since you were born; I have
taken care of you from your birth. Even when you
are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair
has turned gray, I will take care of you. I made
you and will take care of you.”18
If there were no God, we would all be
“accidents,” the result of astronomical random
chance in the universe. You could stop reading
this right now, because life would have no
purpose or significance. There would be no
right or wrong, no good or evil, and no hope
beyond your brief years on earth. Life would
be a meaningless existence, and death would
be the end. But there is a God who made you for a
reason, and your life has profound meaning!
We discover that meaning and purpose only
when we make God the reference point of our
lives. “The only accurate way to understand
ourselves is by what God is and by what he does
for us.”
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
What events or experiences in your life
have “hinted” or suggested that maybe
you were created for a specific purpose?
Have you ever really felt God’s deep
love for you personally?
How would your life change if you
began to live each day confident that
God loves you deeply and has a purpose
for your life?

It All Starts with God,

                                                               
                     

It’s not about you.

The purpose of your life is far greater than

your own personal fulfillment, your peace of

mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater

than your family, your career, or even your

wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to

know why you were placed on this planet, you

must begin with God. You were born by his

purpose and for his purpose.

The search for the purpose of life has puzzled

people for thousands of years. That’s because

we typically begin at the wrong starting point—

ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like,

“What do I want to be? What should I do with

my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my

dreams for my future?”

But focusing on ourselves will never reveal

our life’s purpose. The Bible says, “It is God

who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s

life is in his power.”

Contrary to what many popular books,

movies, and seminars tell you, you won’t discover

your life’s meaning by looking within

yourself. You’ve probably tried that already.

You didn’t create yourself, so there is no way

you can tell yourself what you were created for!

If I handed you an invention you had never

seen before, you wouldn’t know its purpose,and the invention itself wouldn’t be able to tell

you either. Only the creator or the owner’s

manual could reveal its purpose.

I once got lost in the mountains. When I

stopped to ask for directions to the campsite,

I was told, “You can’t get there from here. You

must start from the other side of the mountain!”

In the same way, you cannot arrive at

your life’s purpose by starting with a focus on

yourself. You must begin with God, your

Creator. You exist only because God wills that

you exist. You were made by God and for

God—and until you understand that, life will

never make sense. It is only in God that we

discover our origin, our identity, our meaning,

our purpose, our significance, and our

destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end.

Many people try to use God for their own

self-actualization. They want God to be a personal

“genie” who serves their self-centered

desires. But that is a reversal of nature and is

doomed to failure. You were made for God, not

vice versa, and life is about letting God use

you for his purposes, not your using him for

your own purposes. The Bible says, “Obsession

with self in these matters is a dead end; attention

to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious,

free life.”

I’ve read many books that suggest ways to

discover the purpose of my life. All of them

could be classified as “self-help” ebooks because they approach the subject from a self-centered

viewpoint. Self-help books usually offer the

same predictable steps to finding your life’s

purpose: Consider your dreams. Figure out

what you are good at. Clarify your values. Set

some goals. Aim high. Believe you can achieve

it. Be disciplined. Never give up.

Of course, these recommendations are all

good and often lead to great success. You can

usually succeed in reaching a goal if you put

your mind to it. But being successful and

fulfilling your life’s purpose are not at all the

same issue! You could reach all your personal

goals, becoming a raving success by the world’s

standard, and still miss the purposes for which

God created you. You need more than self-help

advice. Jesus Christ once said, “Self-help is no

help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to

finding yourself, your true self.”

This booklet is not about finding the right

career, achieving your dreams, or planning

your life. It is not about how to cram more

activities into an overloaded schedule. Actually,

knowing your purpose will allow you to do less

in life—by focusing on what matters most. It

is about becoming what God created you to be.

How, then, do you discover the purpose

you were created for? You have only two

options. Your first option is speculation. This

is where most people are. They just guess or

speculate or theorize about the purpose of life. When someone says, “I’ve always thought the

purpose of life is . . . ,” they’re really saying,

“This is the best guess I can come up with.”

For thousands of years brilliant philosophers

have discussed and speculated about the meaning

of life. Philosophy is an important subject

and has its uses, but when it comes to determining

the purpose of life, even the wisest

philosophers are just guessing.

Dr. Hugh Moorhead, a philosophy professor

at Northeastern Illinois University, once wrote

to 250 of the best-known philosophers, scientists,

writers, and intellectuals in the world and

asked each person “What is the meaning of life?”

He then published their responses—which were

quite discouraging—in a book. Some of these

famous thinkers offered their best guesses, some

admitted that they just made up a purpose for

life, and others were honest enough to say they

were clueless. In fact, a number of these intellectuals

asked Professor Moorhead to write back

and tell them if he discovered the purpose of

life!

Fortunately, there is a better alternative to

speculation about the meaning and purpose of

life. The easiest way to discover the purpose

of an invention is to ask the creator to explain

it. The same method works for discovering your

life’s purpose. You can find what God, your

creator, has revealed about life in his Word, the

Bible. Revelation beats speculation any day.

God has not left us in the dark to wonder

and guess. He has clearly revealed his five

purposes for our lives through the Bible. It is

our Owner’s Manual, explaining why we are

alive, how life works, what to avoid, and what

to expect in the future. It explains what no selfhelp

or philosophy book could know. “God’s

wisdom . . . goes deep into the interior of his

purposes. . . . It’s not the latest message, but more

like the oldest—what God determined as the way

to bring out his best in us.”

God is not just the starting point of your life;

he is the source of it. To discover your purpose

in life you must turn to God’s Word, not the

world’s best guesses. You must build your life

on unchanging, eternal truths, not the everchanging

opinions of talk shows, pop psychology

fads, or success-motivation seminars. The

Bible says, “It’s in Christ that we find out who we

are and what we are living for. Long before we

first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had

his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living,

part of the overall purpose he is working out in

everything and everyone.” This verse gives us

three insights into your purpose.

First, you discover your identity and

purpose through a relationship with

Jesus Christ. If you don’t have such a

relationship, I’ll explain later how you

can begin one.

Second, God was thinking of you long

before you ever thought about him.

His purpose for your life predates your

conception. He planned it before you existed,

without your input! You may

choose your career, your spouse, your

hobbies, and many other parts of your

life, but you don’t get to choose your

purpose.

Third, the purpose of your life fits

into a much larger, cosmic purpose

that God has designed for eternity.

That’s what this booklet is about.

Andrei Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up

under a government that denied the existence

of God. But God got his attention one dreary

day. He recalls, “In my twenty-seventh year,

while riding the metro in Leningrad (now St.

Petersburg) I was overcome with a despair so

great that life seemed to stop at once,

preempting the future entirely, let alone any