All For God

We live in a world that trains us to see ourselves as the final reference point—our happiness, our safety, our fulfillment, our success. Even in faith, many quietly believe that God’s primary aim is to make us happy. But Scripture reveals something far deeper: God’s highest aim is His glory, and our greatest joy is found only when our lives are aligned with that purpose.

This does not mean that God is indifferent to our happiness. He is a good Father who delights in His children and gives good gifts. Yet happiness is never the destination—it is the byproduct. When happiness becomes the goal, God becomes a means. When God is the goal, joy becomes the fruit. Jesus never called anyone to self-fulfillment; He called them to self-denial. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). These words are difficult for the natural mind because they confront our instinct for self-preservation and self-interest. Everything within us wants to protect, secure, and promote our own lives. There is nothing sinful about caring for ourselves—but there is something incomplete about living for ourselves.

The highest calling of a human life is not comfort, success, or even personal happiness. It is to live for God. “You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). This statement dismantles the modern assumption that our lives belong primarily to us. We belong to God. We were made by Him, redeemed by Him, and sustained by Him. To live otherwise is not freedom—it is misalignment. Much of the restlessness, dissatisfaction, and quiet emptiness people experience is not because they lack pleasure, but because they lack purpose. The soul was not designed to be the center; it was designed to orbit God.

Living for God’s glory does not mean rejecting joy, freedom, or enjoyment. It means redefining them. When God is the final end, enjoyment becomes worship, freedom becomes obedience, and purpose becomes clarity. The world tells us that fulfillment comes from self-expression; Scripture tells us it comes from self-surrender. “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). This is not poetic language—it is spiritual law. Life is found when it is given back to the One who gave it.

Most people struggle with this because it runs against the grain of fallen human nature. We want God to support our plans rather than reshape them. We want Him to bless our direction rather than become our direction. Even believers can quietly live with God at the margins—invited into decisions, but not enthroned at the center. Yet the Christian life was never meant to be God-added living. It was meant to be God-centered living. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). When God becomes the reference point for all things, life begins to settle into its proper order.

There is also a deeper invitation here. God does not merely save us from sin; He invites us into His purposes. Salvation is not the finish line—it is the doorway. Many experience forgiveness, but never step into surrender. Yet those who do discover something the world cannot offer: a life that is no longer fragmented by competing desires. When God’s purpose becomes primary, lesser things fall into place. Peace replaces striving. Joy replaces comparison. Contentment replaces restlessness. This is not because life becomes easier, but because it becomes aligned.

God, in His goodness, reaches into broken lives and rescues people who were never seeking Him. That is grace. But grace does not stop at rescue—it leads to transformation. The Spirit draws us beyond living for ourselves into living for God. This is where depth is formed. This is where faith matures. This is where true freedom is found. Not freedom to do whatever we want, but freedom to become what we were created to be.

The modern world may struggle to understand a life lived entirely for God, but this is the highest calling a human being can answer. Everything else fades. Everything else passes. But a life aligned with God’s purpose participates in something eternal. When we stop asking how God fits into our lives and begin asking how our lives fit into God’s purpose, we discover the paradox of the Kingdom: in losing ourselves, we find ourselves; in surrendering our lives, we finally begin to live.