Biblical Answer

Can I still have a purpose in life?

According to Scripture, the major purpose of our life is to fulfill the reason that God created us: to glorify Him. When we are speaking about our purpose in life, we are talking about the reason that God created us. Our purpose must be to glorify Him, not to achieve some end or other, but simply because He is our Creator and we are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

If we do not believe in God, then our life is not qualitatively different from that of an animal. As the ancient writer of Ecclesiastes put it, "The fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts" (Ecclesiastes 3:19). In this sense, we are here to no purpose. But if God exists, then we have a purpose in life. Our purpose is not to achieve some end or other, but to fulfill the reason that God created us: to glorify Him.

So, can we still have a purpose in life? The answer is yes, if God exists. Our purpose is to glorify Him, not to achieve some end or other, but simply because He is our Creator and we are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). This great self-discovery of who we are in Christ then frees us and makes us strong to hate and exterminate the evil in ourselves and to sacrifice our own rights and even our own welfare for others. In this sense, we have a purpose in life that is greater than our own personal happiness or fulfillment. Our purpose is to glorify God and to fulfill the reason that He created us.