Two years ago, I stood before a wall with the words “Before I die, I want to…” written on it. The wall had been put up in the lobby of my church as my pastor started a new series on things to do before one died.
I remember standing in front of the still blank wall, my mind spinning with a dozen ideas of things I wanted to do before I took my last breath. Those ideas slowly came together and coalesced into a single thought, and I wrote on the wall:
Before I die, I want to live!
At that time, living for me meant having a career, getting married, traveling the world, and having fancy things. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, but chasing after them will not lead anyone to a full life.
We only get one life, and it is of the utmost importance that we maximize it. Over the last couple of years, I learned that to live the abundant life Jesus wants for us, our “best life“; we need this to know these three things.
1. Your creator
And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
John 17:3
The most important thing you need to have in life is the knowledge of your creator. Our creator is the triune God; Father, Son in the person of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. You need to know God intimately, know His character, and be in a close relationship with Him.
It may sound daunting to know the King of the universe like that, but our God happens to be very approachable. God wants us to have fellowship with Him. He has given us everything we need to know and experience Him in this life.
You can know God by reading the Bible and praying. The Bible is the living word of God; it is where He reveals Himself and speaks to us. And prayer is how we talk to God and spend time with Him.
When I became a real Christian, I only knew of God, and I didn’t have a relationship with Him. But my life changed when I committed to reading the Bible and praying daily. I formed a relationship with Jesus, learned who He was, and learned to love Him. And I can say without a shred of doubt that my life has been fuller and better since then.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life; no one can have a full and abundant life outside of Him. Forget what the world says; your best life doesn’t start with a career, marriage, fancy cars, and such. Your best life begins when you know your creator, Jesus.
2. How you were created
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Psalm 139:13-14
God created each one of us uniquely with different sets of gifts, talents, and abilities. Not only do we need to know and understand how God created us, but we must also embrace it.
I say this because from the moment we are born, we are conditioned to believe different notions and stereotypes and may assume roles and traits that God never intended for us. As a result of this, we miss out on being the beautiful creation that we are supposed to be.
It could be that at some point in our lives, we picked up a habit and repeated it so much that years later, we identify ourselves as that. Or on the other hand, we suppressed something innate in us because it didn’t fit our environment or people around us didn’t understand it. (please note I am not talking about anything LGBTQ related or other sinful tendencies).
Friend, is it possible that who you think you are is not who you indeed are, how God created you? It was the case for me.
I didn’t know or realize that God created me as a writer until a few months ago. In my younger years, I loved writing stories and poems. I had dreams of writing, which included writing songs, movies, and books. I even kept a list of ideas for films I would one day write and have imagined different plotlines for books over the years.
But at some point, life happened, and all those dreams and passion slowly went into annihilation. Even later, when random writing prompts came to me, I resolutely ignored it. I told myself many times that I was not a writer and believed it. But God breathed life into that dead part of me, and I started writing again. And I must say, I do enjoy it a lot. That’s how God created me.
You might think you know yourself well and got this part down; I believed that too. But you don’t know what you don’t know.
Spend some time alone and introspect, take some personality tests, figure out your spiritual gifts, your talents, things you can easily do without having been taught (it doesn’t have to be sports or music), think of your dreams when you were younger, things you genuinely enjoy doing, etc.
Most important of all, ask your creator to reveal to you the person He designed, not the person the world made. Know yourself and be yourself; you are too wonderfully created to be anything else.
3. Why you were created
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10
The last thing you need to know is why God created you. No one is an accident or a mistake; God intentionally created each one of us. And like everything else in creation, we were designed for a purpose. A lot of people go through life without knowing why God created them and not doing what God made them for; that is a tragedy.
It would be like buying the latest iPhone, but only use it to make phone calls. You would just be getting a fraction of the phone’s capabilities. The same goes for our lives when we don’t do what we are created to do.
The good news is that our purpose is not a secret. It’s not written on a scroll in an undecipherable language locked away in a vault down in a deep cave surrounded by warriors whose sole mission is to protect it unto death. God has revealed to us why He created us.
God created us to glorify Him (Isaiah 43:7); to know Him, love Him, enjoy Him, and have fellowship with Him (1 Corinthians 1:9); and to produce good works (Ephesians 2:10)
That is the reason behind our creation, every single one of us. And once you know it, You can also identify your calling. Your calling is a specific task God wants to accomplish through you; it will involve a place that only you can influence, a group of people only you can reach.
Our calling is different for everyone. It utilizes the unique sets of gifts and talents God has given us and the individual desires of our hearts. Whatever our calling is, it will align with the purpose behind our creation, to glorify God.
Don’t live your life in blissful ignorance of your purpose and follow worldly wisdom that your life is all about you. It is not. You were intentionally created for a purpose; anything you do outside of it is not your best and fullest life. Only God can tell you why you exist and how to use your life. So seek His counsel and follow Him wherever He leads you.
I learned these three things over the last two years, and it has changed me and put me on a path to living a better and more fulfilling life.
When I know who God is, I can follow Him instead of idols that will only lead me to death.
Understanding how God created makes me unshakeable when circumstances, people, or the enemy try to dictate who I am.
Knowing my purpose, I won’t chase after worldly things that will never fulfill me. Instead, I will do what I was created for and make my life meaningful.
My prayer for you is also to know these three things and live your life to the full, the life that God planned for you before you were even born.
