What is my purpose in life?
You get up, work, scroll, sleep, repeat, and a quiet question keeps following you: is this it? You are not alone. More than half of young adults say they lack meaning or purpose.
Your purpose has two layers. The first is the same for everyone: to know God, love Him, and love people (Matthew 22:37–39). The second is specific to you: the gifts, experiences and burdens God has given you point to the good works He prepared for you to do (Ephesians 2:10). You usually find the second by living the first, taking faithful steps where you are, not by waiting for a lightning bolt.
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Moses thought his chance had passed
Moses spent forty years in the palace and forty more as a shepherd in the desert, far from everything he thought mattered. He was eighty when God spoke from a burning bush and sent him to lead a nation out of slavery (Exodus 3). He argued he was the wrong man. Those desert years had taught him exactly the land he would lead people through. Nothing in your story is wasted either.
Three questions that point to your calling
What breaks your heart? The problems you can’t stop noticing are often the ones you were made to help solve.
What do people already come to you for? Your gifts are often obvious to others before they are to you.
What has your pain taught you? The thing you survived may be the thing you are meant to help others through (2 Corinthians 1:4).
Purpose is found in motion
Most people don’t discover their calling and then start. They start serving, building and helping, and their calling becomes clear along the way. Be faithful in the small thing in front of you (Luke 16:10).
What the Bible says
- 01
You were made for good works.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.”
Ephesians 2:10 - 02
God’s plans for you.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 - 03
The purpose everyone shares.
“Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Matthew 22:37–39 - 04
How you discern God’s will.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:2 - 05
You were made on purpose.
“For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.”
Psalm 139:13–14 - 06
Trusting Him with the path.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5–6
Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible.
Answer the three questions above on paper tonight. Then choose one small way to act on your answer this week.
Common questions
What if I don’t know what I’m good at?
Ask three people who know you well what they think your strengths are. Then try serving in a few different ways. Gifts show up in action.
Is it too late to find my purpose?
No. Moses was eighty. Abraham was seventy-five. God’s timing is not the world’s timeline.
Does my job have to be my purpose?
Not necessarily. Your purpose shows up in your work, your family, your church and how you treat people. Your job can fund your calling even when it isn’t your calling.
Find your next step.
Become’s Journey shows you where you are in every part of life, with God, money, health and relationships, and the next step to grow.