The Most Important Goal of Life

“Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.”

~Psalm 25:5 (NRSV)

There is never a more urgent message. As we step back through our minds upon reaching eternity, in situ with our Judge, implicit of all enquiries will be one pervading question: Did you live for truth?

At such a question—wrapping the most important goal of life—there will be no hiding. All truth would be brought to bear, not to accuse, but to hold to account; after all, we will stand there, saved, safe in eternity by allegiance to Jesus, but we will still be called to account for failures to live for truth. The Lord may ask, “Why didn’t you live for truth at the opportunities you were given?”

Of course, we will also be rewarded for successes in living for truth.

It re-orders our perspective, doesn’t it? Of the things we think are important many are not. The primary goal of life is to live for truth in every possible, perceivable way.

Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

The song of the same name as the subtitle, by Paul Baloche (Integrity’s Hosanna! Music, 1997), implies a prayer by a solemn heart, one desperate for vision of the Lord.

It seeks even a snippet of the truth of the Lord’s heavenly Presence. It seeks vision of a cherished heartland for worship in eternity. It seeks knowledge of what that might be like, as if to order, and perhaps re-order, the life here and now.

But as we read the lyrics of the song most of the words perhaps betray the power meant in the title, for when we are to pray “open the eyes of my heart, Lord” we are truly seeking vision of the reality we most often do not see, because of the comparative strength of our flesh, the influence of the world, and the deceit at Satan’s hand.

Yet, we do wish to see Jesus high and lifted up—in our daily lives to acknowledge the kingship of the Lord over the living of our lives; every decision, action, even over every thought. The Lord understands we fail many times—grace assures us; all is okay.

If we don’t want eternity punctuated by regret we might urgently seek the Lord to open the eyes of our hearts, now, today. We want to see the truth and we want to obey the truth.

Standing Convicted

We know we are guilty. But life, as God destines it, goes beyond guilt into the productiveness of grace. As sinners we stand convicted. Better to stand convicted now of turning back to God and turning our lives around.

Not only will we be pardoned in eternity, but Judgment may, in fact, be made more tolerable because we stood convicted of the truth each moment, as far as humanly possible, and repented at every opportunity. We chose for Judgment here and now. We allowed the Holy Spirit to judge us—by informing us unto obedience—continually. Even when we did wrong we repented of it.

We will stand convicted—and in Christ, pardoned—but we may also choose, in advance, to stand convicted for the truth, now.

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The most important goal of life is to live for truth; to have God open the eyes of our hearts; to envision the Great Judgment and live in the light of that awesome reality, now.