The Purpose Driven Life
by Rick Warren—A Synopsis (continued).
Chapter 2—You Are Not an
Accident (pages 22-26)
Summary
Each person, his make-up
(every distinguishing feature), and his abilities were no accident of nature.
All of these and more were planned by God before time. Each person is alive
because God wanted him to exist and to live according to God’s purpose. He
planned every detail about every human being’s life in advance. Nothing about
any person is an accident, his form or his days of life.
Just as God planned each
individual, He also planned his parents and created through them the correct
DNA for each person’s birth and development. Even though many children are
not “planned” by their parents, every child is planned by God. God’s purpose
took into account both human error and sinful behavior.
God never does anything
accidentally. He never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything.
Everything, both inanimate and animate in His creation, has a purpose within
His master plan.
God’s motive for creating an
individual was His love for him. God in fact created this world especially
for mankind, the focus of His love. A detailed study of the universe will
make obvious just how uniquely suited and custom-made it is for mankind. The
universe, this world and every person on it were planned and created with
great precision.
God did all of this so that
He could demonstrate His love for mankind, each individual person. This is a
fundamental truth on which every person is to build his life. God is
love; not that He has love. Love is the essence of His
character. God’s purpose of creating mankind was so that He could express
His love toward every single person. Because of this each person may know
that he is no accident, that he is created for a reason and that his life has
profound meaning. But, one can only discover that meaning and purpose when he
makes God the reference point of his life.
Quotes
“You are not an accident.”
(pg. 22)
“While there are illegitimate
parents, there are no illegitimate children.” (pg. 23)
“We discover that meaning and
purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.” (pg.
25)
Scriptures
The LORD will perfect that which concerns me.
(Psalm 138:8a)
My frame was not hidden from You, when I was
made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your
eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were
written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
(Psalm 139:15, 16)
God, who made the world and everything in it,
since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with
hands. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything,
since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one
blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has
determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so
that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and
find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
for in Him we live and move and have our being,
as also some of your own poets have said, “For we are also His offspring.”
(Acts 17:24-28) [Note—the
book only quotes verse 26]
Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world. (Ephesians 1:4a)
Of His own will He brought us forth by the word
of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
(James 1:18)
For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens,
Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did
not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: "I am the LORD, and
there is no other. (Isaiah 45:18)
He who does not love does not know God, for God
is love. (1 John 4:8)
Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the
remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who
have been carried from the womb: even to your old age, I am He, and even to
gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry,
and will deliver you. (Isaiah
46:3, 4)
For I say, through the grace given to me, to
everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought
to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of
faith. (Romans 12:3)
Conclusion/Comments
Absolutely everything of God
is not accidental. The universe, the world and every person was
planned in detail before time. God’s plan is being carried out exactly as He
has intended for it to be dispensed. This includes the creation of
everything living and non-living; and of every single human being. Every
person has been planned in detail in advance, and God intends every person to
understand and live out the purpose God has provided for each person’s life.
God has done all of this
because He is the embodiment of true love, and in and to His
creation He expresses His love. This is the basis of each person’s
being, and each person should understand that he has been created specifically
so that he may be the recipient of God’s love in Jesus Christ. If this is
understood, and it can only be understood when God is the reference point of
one’s life, then the person will know how special he is to God and how
meaningful his life upon earth can be.