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Sep 21, 2025 06:00am

Waist Deep in God’s Purpose: Finding Fulfillment That Lasts

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This morning while out in my garden picking peas, I encountered a couple of guests. One was a little green tree frog that I have seen every day for the past week. The other was a bumblebee who was so deeply immersed in a pea bloom that I almost didn’t see it. One of the things I love about being out in nature is that it removes all the pressures and distractions of the world and allows your mind to be calm and focused. This benefit, accompanied by the fact that we are constantly surrounded by all the things created by God Himself, rarely fails to give us a glimpse of Him, His character, or His glory, unless we are just not looking for Him. This morning was no different as I noticed some commonalities between my two garden guests.

The tree frog was holding tightly to a pea that he refused to let go of, even after I picked it. He was determined to hold on to the goodness of my garden. The bumblebee was so deeply involved in retrieving the sumptuous pollen of the pea bloom that it never saw me. To be fair, it took me a while to see it also because only the tip of its tail was visible poking out of the yellow bloom. But both my guests were so focused on what they wanted at that moment, that had I been a predator, it could have been quite dangerous for both of them.

I was reminded in that moment of our own struggles as humans, when we become so vested in our own pleasures that we lose sight of what God created us to seek after. In Colossians 1:16–18, Scripture is very clear about the purpose for which we were created. Verse 16 of this passage states that all things were created by God, all things that we can see and things we cannot see. It also says that all the things that were created by Him were also created for Him. And so, it is safe for us to assume that the way that He made us was for His pleasure and His glory.

Unfortunately, when sin entered the world through Adam, it created in all mankind a sin nature. As a result, we, like the frog and the bumblebee this morning, tend to pursue our own pleasure and our own glory rather than God’s. This sin nature not only changed our desires, making us more self-seeking, but sin also made it impossible for us to please or glorify God in our own strength and ability. Our sin makes us enemies of a holy and righteous God. Ephesians 2:1 describes us as “dead in our sin” and that our tendency to try to fulfill the desires of the flesh and mind rather than seek God, make us “children of wrath.” In Ephesians 2:4–5, Scripture says “But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

By Christ’s sacrifice, we have been made alive, and the righteousness of Christ has been placed on us. In that same process of being made alive, we were given the Holy Spirit, to “convict us of sin and righteousness, and judgment” so we, once again, could have the desire and ability to pursue our purpose of living for His pleasure and His glory.

Unfortunately, if we do not fully grasp this concept, we may continue to try to find fulfillment in other things like relationships, sexual pleasure, alcohol, drugs, or success according to the world’s standards. When we do this, much like the tree frog and the bumblebee, we make ourselves vulnerable to the enemy. Unlike them, the enemy we make ourselves vulnerable to is not a gardener who respects our existence as God’s creation nor does he recognize our benefit in the world where we have been placed by our Creator. The one we become vulnerable to when pursuing our own desires is destructive and evil, and Scripture tells us that his motivation is to “devour us.”

I often see people who resist pursuing their God-given purpose because they want to be “free to do what they want.” What they don’t realize is that if we are not submitting to God’s will and purpose for us, we are making ourselves slaves to Satan who seeks to destroy us, oftentimes by our own hand and our own choosing.

I Peter 5:6–11 tells us that if we submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God that in due time, He will exalt us. The writer is careful to explain that while we are enduring difficulty, it’s important to understand that our struggles are common to both believers and unbelievers, the difference is the outcome. Verse 10 of I Peter 5 tells us that the believer can trust that God will strengthen and establish and perfect us through that suffering. This is very different from the description of Satan like a roaring lion that devours in this same passage. This passage also tells us that in this submission and endurance and strengthening and perfecting we bring glory to God as is our purpose.

As my mind went back to pondering my garden guests, it occurred to me that even though they were both pursuing pleasant things, they were not pursuing the wrong things. They were pursuing things that God created for them to pursue and they were fulfilling their purpose in God’s creation. As I contemplated this thought, it made me consider how fulfilled we would be, if we, like them, were waist deep in pursuing our purpose. While there are many verses that describe this fulfillment, I will just share with you a few of my favorites. James 1:4 says, “Let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” Psalm 16:11 says, “You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

These verses are beautiful reminders that when we are waist deep in pursuing God’s purposes for us, the benefits are long lasting and never disappoint!