Each of us wonders what our place in this world is: "Why am I here?" "What am I supposed to do with my life?" "Why did God create me?" In the course of creating all that exists God chose to create human beings with an identity and a purpose. God, being the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, looked upon the goodness of creation that He just spoke into being (Genesis 1), and "'Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them'" (Genesis 1:26–27).
Each of us is intentionally and magnificently formed by God (Psalm 139:13–16). Like a master artist, with great attention and care, in our mother's womb, before we took our first breath and before we accomplished anything, God, our Maker, says we were made with a purpose. God spoke this specifically of the prophet Jeremiah saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:4–5). God had foreknowledge of each of us, too!
Why did God create me? He has a plan and purpose for your life. He created you out of love, for relationship with Him, and for His glory. Perhaps the highest calling of life is the glory of God. Because of the goodness of God, bringing Him glory is actually life-giving for us. While Psalm 139 informs us that we are "wonderfully made" by God, Ephesians 2 tells us that we are "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (verse 10). We have been made by God, in His image, with great care, and we are set apart by God to do good works, revealing Him to everyone we know.
God invites every human into fellowship with Him. Though each of us is created in God's image, we also each carry the stain of sin and the curse of separation from God. Sin brings about only death and condemnation (Romans 3:23; John 3:16–18). There is nothing we can do on our own to overcome this problem. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses" made a way of salvation for us—Jesus Christ. Jesus, being fully God and fully human, lived a perfect life and died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sin. He then rose back to life, proving He is who He says He is and that He is victorious over sin and death (1 Corinthians 15:3–7, 20–22, 54–58). When we place our faith in Jesus we will be forgiven and enter into this perfect relationship with God for eternity (Ephesians 2:1–10; John 17:3; Matthew 25:46; Mark 10:17–31). The gift of being with God is not only a future reality but also a present one. We are invited to enjoy the life-giving conversation that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always been enjoying. We do this primarily by reading the Bible and praying (Acts 2:42; 6:4; Colossians 1:3; Hebrews 5:7) and by living in the Spirit of God (Romans 8; Galatians 5; 2 Corinthians 3:3) in fellowship with other believers (Hebrews 10:24–25).
Why are we to do this? Colossians 1:16 pronounces God's intent, "all things were created through him and for him." The heavens and the earth, the skies and the seas, the plants and animals, and especially mankind, were all made by Jesus for the glory of God! And Jesus tells us the best way to respond to and reveal God's glory saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37–39; see also John 13:34–35; John 15:1–11). God is glorified for eternity and now on earth when we love Him and when we love others. This is why we were made. And "we love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19; see also John 3:16; John 16:27).
Why did God create me? What is my place in this world? It is a glorious place of first being loved by God, and loving Him in response. And then, trusting in God, we all live out our purpose empowered by Him. God, in His grace and kindness, gives us spiritual gifts to be used to love Him and serve Him by loving and serving His people. These supernatural gifts (1 Peter 4:10; 1 Corinthians 12:7–11) are given to us for God's glory and we get to enjoy being His workmanship to love the world and in doing so reflect who He is to anyone who sees us (John 8:12; 9:5). Every human is made in the Imago Dei, in the image of God, and, by God's grace, those who have put their faith in Jesus are being made more and more like Jesus, that is we are being "conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29).
So whether you ask "why did God create me?", or "why did God make me?", or even "what am I supposed to do with my life?", the answer is the same. You are to love God and love others. We are made by God, for the glory of God, to become more and more like Jesus and we are empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit to do good works. God gives us the freedom, in Jesus, to do this and He gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit to make this possible! We can then be confident that God's good purposes for us will be fulfilled, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit will produce good fruit that will be seen by others (Galatians 5:22–23). And God will be glorified on earth and in heaven, now and forever.
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