Purpose of Life – Wounded Butterflies

It is easy to take God for granted. We are very busy with work, errands, parenting, caregiving, petsitting, yard work, family events, scrolling social media, helping friends and on and on. “For the life of every living thing is in His hand, and the breath of every human being.” One simple way to focus on Him and just how involved He is in our lives is to take 30 seconds of deep breaths.

Every breath you take is from God. You can speak or sing or sigh only because God allows you to have air to breathe into your lungs. He allows your lungs to inflate to hold air and to deflate as the air flows out of your body. Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.”

It is the same with your heart beating. Every single time your heart beats to send blood throughout your body, it is because God makes it beat. He allows your heart to beat and your lungs to hold air. Every breath you take belongs to God. Job 27:3, “As long as I live, while I have breath from God,⁴my lips will speak no evil, and my tongue will speak no lies.” May that be true for all us still breathing.

Since God allows us to breathe in His air so we can speak, shouldn’t we be very cautious about what we say with God’s air? May we sing to the Lord as long as we live and praise God to our last breath! (Psalms 104:33). May we pray as long as we have breath! (Psalms 116:2). We were created to bring Him glory – in words and deeds. If we do not praise Him, He will make the rocks cry out and give them the breath intended for us. (Luke 19:40).

We were created to tell others about Jesus. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19). Our purpose in life is to show a lost and hurting world that there is a Savior, a God Who loves them. A God Who took the breath away from His own Son so we may be saved. “Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.” Luke 23:46.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank You that You love us. Please help us to use each breath that you give us to bring You glory. Thank You for the Spirit of God Who has made us, and the breath of the Almighty that gives us life. Thank You for Jesus, breath and our heartbeats. Thank You for blessing us and please use us to bless others. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

In Luke 5:2-8, we see Jesus intentionally choose Peter’s boat. There were two boats in the water, so why did Jesus choose Peter’s?

“He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So He sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.” “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking. When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.””

Peter failed at fishing that night and also failed Jesus by denying Him three times during their time together leading up to the cross. But Jesus knew all that and still chose Peter from the start. Peter goes on to save many people and start many churches as a failure. Jesus restored Peter for the three times he denied Jesus. Jesus knows we are failures and will use us anyway. He intentionally chose you and me, despite your failures and mine. Nobody is perfect, just remember Jesus loves you, exactly as you are, failures and all. He chose you, exactly as you are.

Let’s pray.

Please use us even though we can be a mess and fail. Fill us with Your peace and help us to feel how incredibly deep Your love is for us, no matter how many times we fail. You love us and are right there waiting to love us each and every time we fail. Thank you Lord! In Jesus’ name, amen.