Wake Up To Purpose
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If we are going to discover the life God dreamed for us, I believe it’s important to go back to the beginning and rediscover God’s original design and purpose for humanity.
In Genesis 1:27 it says, “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”
He created people in His own image, and it’s essential we recognize that this means something significant.
John H. Walton wrote, “Being made in the image of God confers on us dignity, entrusts us with responsibility, and implants in us a certain potential, namely the capacity to mirror our Creator.”
It seems to me that most of the time people talk about human dignity when they talk about what it means to be created in God’s image. But I also like to focus on the responsibility that comes with the nature of our creation.
I believe God created people to partner with Him in finishing the very act of creation, to share in His purpose.
Let me be clear: He could have done whatever needed to be done on the planet by Himself. But He created people who, under His authority and in intimate relationship with Him, would share in His life and work in the world.
So, looking to the first humans God created, what was God’s dream for people in the beginning?
God purposed humanity to multiply His God-image through the whole earth.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:28
We know that the God-image reflected in humanity was broken by the sin of Adam and Eve, but we also know that it’s being repaired continuously through Jesus Christ. And we are to partner with Him in multiplying this repaired God-image throughout the earth.God gave humanity the responsibility to work on and care for what He has made.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 2:15
In other words, we are not truly fulfilled if we are not caring for what God cares about and working on what God is working on in the world.God tasked humanity with spreading the beauty of the Garden to the whole earth.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet spring up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. Genesis 2:5-8
Genesis 2 tells us that the earth was barren, but the Garden of Eden was lush and beautiful. Adam was created to continue God’s creative activity, to spread the beauty of Eden all throughout the earth. He was not created to solely enjoy the Garden and have a nice time; He had purpose.
We are supposed to do the same and advance the Kingdom of God. We are to multiply the God-image and fill the earth with the glory and the beauty of God.
What can you do to find your place in what God’s doing on the earth and fulfill your God-given purpose?