Life is meant for a divine purpose

  I was going through my family photo album until I came across a picture of a beautiful young damsel. She was so young that I could not recognize her, and the fact that her picture is in the family photo album made me curious to know who she was. I was amazed to find out that the beautiful young teenager was my aunt, but she is so old now that you can not believe she is as beautiful as the one in that picture.

   I found out that immediately after a person is born, he starts by embarking on a journey of three important stages, and each of these stages determines whether life lived up to its divine purpose or not.

  The stages are:

• The teenage stage:

    You might wonder why I skip the infant or toddler stage of life. But at that stage, the newly birthed life is cared for, nurtured to grow, and protected at all costs because life at that time can not possibly do anything on its own. The parents do not only give birth to life, but they also become the guide of life's means of survival on Earth. 

  In Exodus 1:15-22, the pharaoh ordered the killing of all newly male birthed lives among the children of Israel because the Israelites were multiplying and also becoming stronger. His decree was carried out, and all the males born at that time were killed except for a woman who understood her obligations to her child as a mother. She risked all to save her baby because the baby could not save itself. 

  Also, in Matthew 2:16, Herod represented the same occurrence when he ordered the killing of male babies to stop the prophecy of the Messiah. Also, the parents of the infant saved their child's life because, at that moment, the infant could not save itself even being the messiah.

  A newborn baby does not know when danger is coming and can not save itself when it comes, but its safety and well-being are the obligations of its parents. 

  From the above scriptural references, the cause of the killings was because the two babies were destined for a great purpose. So, to get them killed, they had to kill many babies. Let us assume that the parents did nothing to save their babies; those babies and their destinies will be killed as well. 

Note: Dear parents, your infant's physical and spiritual life and growth are your absolute responsibility, and if you fail in that very aspect, then you have failed your baby. 

  More about your responsibility as a parent on https://www.seedwordchristian.com/2023/11/your-responsibility-as-parents.html

  At the teenage stage, they start having a sense of belonging and taking responsibility, even more open to learning about life either through the positive or negative aspects of life.

  As a teenager, it is your life and your decision to live your life probably the way you wish to but being a teenager already makes you a novice and without a proper guide you might make a mistake you will live to regret all your life. Your teenagehood is like a stage of making the foundation upon which your whole life will be built and if eventually, your life foundation is built on decisions that are bent on ruining your life then you are ruined for life. 2 Timothy 2:19; Matthew 7:24-27

  About 95 percent of people who missed their track in life were a result of the decisions and life they lived in their teenagehood. It came hunting them because not all mistakes are forgotten, but some mistakes leave a mark that no matter how long it is, the incident will always keep affecting life. 

  Little Joseph, at his age, could differentiate between good and evil, and he knew when his brothers were doing evil and chose not to join them but rather reported their evil activities to their father. As a teenager, he understood the importance of living a positive life, and it paid off when his father gifted him a coat of many clothes. Genesis 37:1-4

  What about little David, who spent his teenagehood in the bush taking care of his father’s sheep before he was anointed by Samuel as the king after Saul in 1 Samuel 16? These modern teenagers will prefer to spend their time on pleasure rather than on something that will earn them a better future. 

  When I was growing up as I teenager I learned that it pays to do good even when the process seems like it is an unwise decision but the fact remains that evil tries so hard to subdue good and make those doing good bad, but doing good will always pay off at the right time. There is no gain in doing evil, and anyone does have its consequences.

•   The youthful stage: 

   Most youths see this stage as a time to live life outside their parent's coverage. A time when no one's opinion matters but rather to do that thing they are desirous of as far as it is what will make them happy. 

  Take your time to ask Google about the number of young inmates in person all over the world in 2024, and you will marvel at the high number they will show you. The right to enjoy this youthful stage has led many into wayward living, many into crime, expelled many from school, and many sentenced to life imprisonment. Thus, there is more to life than that because it is not what they are meant to live for, but rather it is a misuse of life given an opportunity not only to discover the very purpose of life but also to vibrantly take up the cause of fulfilling the discovered purpose of their lives.

  Our present youths are skillful in doing evil without being remorseful or caring about the consequences of their actions. Jeremiah 4:22  They do not need anyone to tutor them in doing evil, but they do not know how to do good. No wonder the Bible made clear in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the god of evil has blinded their eyes from doing good. Yes, because it is only a blind person who will know that evil kills and still goes ahead to do it. Ecclesiastes 11:9

Note: The best life to live as a youth is found in Christ the son of the living God because Christ knows your future from the onset and He is the only one capable of leading you toward fulfilling your future. 

  It is a privilege to be a youth because it is a stage of lots of achievement and fulfillment when channeled on the right track. That is why the Bible said in Ecclesiastes 12:1 to all youths to remember God in their days of youth because a lot awaits to push many away from God. 

  That you are still a youth without discovering your purpose in life is because you rejected Jesus Christ. After all, I do not see any future in you without Him. And what is the essence of your existence without Him in your life? Life is a struggle and living in darkness all through without Him, and the best you can do for yourself now as a youth is to go to Him. Matthew 11:28

• The adult stage

  There are two sets of people in the adult stage, which are:

1. Early adult stage

  This are set of people who I think have laid a foundation for their lives because at this stage they should have already known their left and right, and have gathered enough experience to build for their discovered purpose in life. They have come to the full stage of maturity to handle different issues of life. They are an independent set of people who are established on their own. They have also understood what love is and are willing to start up a family of their own.    To know more about starting up a home, click on https://www.seedwordchristian.com/2023/09/dont-manage-marriage.html

  Early adulthood is a serious stage because most mistakes made during this stage of life have immediate repercussions. After all, it is a stage of accountability. 

  Thus, people like:

A. Adam and Eve were in that stage, and their single mistake made God throw them out of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3

B.  Lot's wife made the mistake of turning back and turned into a pillar of salt in Genesis 19:26 

C. Uzzah made the mistake of disobedience, and God struck him dead in 2 Samuel 6:6-7

D. Gehazi's mistake made him and his descendants  leper in 2 Kings 5:27

E. Ananias and Sapphire's mistake of lying against the Holy Spirit led to their early grave in Acts 5:1-11

  Is it not obvious that most of what you are going through in life might be a result of your evil deeds? Keep misusing the opportunity life offers to you to live the best of your life because no evil goes without punishment. Isaiah 48:22; Proverbs 16:4 

  At this stage, you are not living if you are not investing in the future because it is the only thing to pave the way for you in your old age. 

  Let's talk about the investment Dorcas in Acts 9:36-42 made that gave her a second chance and reason to live again. She invested through her generosity towards people that her kind-heartedness was known by everyone in Joppa, and she became sick, which led to her death. But, that did not end there for her because all those investments she made in people began to speak for her to come back to life. The summary of it all was that God used Peter to bring her back to life.

  It is good to invest in material things and it is also better to invest in people's lives because you might not know which of those investments will be available to take care of you in your old age. 

2. Late adult stage 

  This is the final stage of life when one becomes stricken in age. 1 Kings 1:1-4 When old age came, the same David who had fought so many battles was so cold that no amount of bedsheets could keep him warm. The same David, who likes women, had many wives and concubines but could not touch Abishag because he was old.

  There are so many things you love doing; time is coming when you will not be able to do them again. A time when your bones become so weak that you will not even be able to take care of yourself but need all the support you can get. That time also is when the investment you made when you were young will be put to use to help your old age. 

  If there is time to make good use of this life given to you by God, I think that time is now. Stop wasting it on things that profit not because you will give an account of your life. Colossians 3:2; Romans 14:12

  Check yourself, are you living by God's purpose for your life? Will God look at you with so much happiness and be proud of the kind of life you are living in? If you are not living the right life destined by God, I think God is allowing you to start now before it is too late.  Your time is ticking, and you are not getting any younger.

   May God help you to make the right choices in life in Jesus' name,  Amen!