The purpose is the cross.

Maybe it’s the heart posture. The one where your heart longs for your creator more than anything else. The one where His will supersedes your desires even when you don’t understand it. 

So, the purpose in the pain. Is that the one where I suffer for a period of time and I am rewarded in multiple folds, like in Job 42:12 - the Lord blessed the last part of Job’s life even more than He had blessed the first. Job owned fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, two thousand head of cattle, and one thousand donkeys.

There is purpose in the pain… the purpose I have found is that a good God created man in His image. This man was created to fellowship with this God forever and ever. The plot thickened and man fell off, this love story was jeopardised. Then this same good God in His infinite goodness, made a way for man to connect himself back to the creator. And until man is finally round about the bridge, back to forever fellowship with this good God, man will be required daily to present himself as one who is fit for the forever fellowship. I digress.

I strongly opine that the ultimate purpose of God for man is to become Holy as He is - to become like Him and to be rightful in the claim of a life in heaven. That is the glory and reward that has been promised. I do believe that a person’s lifetime on earth might be characterised by what we call ‘the worst of all’, but God is looking down in delight because His sole purpose is being achieved. I think our definition of good has been polluted and we try to box God in the limitations of our sight and comprehension. 

To come to the end of myself is an experience I cherish. Bearing in mind that it is a painful and exasperating one. But the absoluteness of me needing and seeking God (which should be our daily normal) always feels like a breath of heaven. Not to glorify poverty and suffering, but the idea that I’m at a point where all I see, all I desire, all I need, and all that can actually save and deliver me is Jesus - oh I long for it. Sometimes, in our shallowness we get busy planning and scheming the many ways we can let God use us. We forget that beyond that, His will is ultimate. We want all the good feels to believe that we are now equipped to be used. The stink of pride on you - suddenly you know a better way to be, outside of what you were created for. 

You masterpiece of a master creator. He made us in a variety of the needs of this fallen world. Hence the need to know the WHO so you can know the why. He never promised a luxurious fate, but as for the forever fellowship in heaven - that’s a given. Sometimes the pain is only a pruning. As you have decided to follow Jesus, you know you need to let go of the weight. Sometimes the pruning might look like a loss, because you need to reach a point where your only Lord is Christ. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you get double for your loss. You get more of Christ and what He has for you. 

The purpose in the pain or in life if you dare to pace forward, is for man to become more and more like the Creator. For man to become Holy like God is, so man can dwell for eternity in heavenly fellowship. And as a point of surrender and worship to our creator, we give our life and every think of autonomy to the Creator’s will. 

Luke 9:23-25

23 And He said to them all, “if you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, take up your cross everyday, and follow me.

24 For if you want to save your own life, you will loose it, but if you lose your life for My sake, you will save it.

25 Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but are yourself lost or defeated? Of course not!

The purpose in it all - the pain, the joy, the wait, all of it; is to loose yourself as you become more and more like Christ. The purpose is to become, into the semblance of the one that the Creator God is pleased with. To be a worthy candidate of the bridegroom’s feast. To be emptied constantly, only to be filled up by the Creator. The purpose is Jesus. Less of you, more of Him. Indeed, God will bless you. God will restore you. God will take good care of His own. But you see at the end of that line, it’s not always the multiple folds downpour. Most times it’s a heart that has been purged and now has more room for Jesus. And that is more than any riches this world could offer.