What Is The Purpose of Life?

God’s Plan of Happiness for Us (Part I)

To understand the purpose of life it is first important to understand where we came from.

We lived as spirit sons and daughters of God before this life. We lived with God and Jesus Christ and made the decision to come to earth to receive a physical body and experience mortal life. This was God’s plan for us.

God first sent Adam and Eve to the earth. They lived in the Garden of Eden. God told them not to partake of the forbidden fruit. If they did, they would be subject to physical death-they would die. They would also be subject to spiritual death-they could sin. Satan tempted Adam and Eve and they ate the fruit. Because they did this they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. They could now die and could also sin. However, Adam and Eve could also now have children and each of us had the opportunity to be born and come to earth. 

When we came to earth we passed through a veil of forgetfulness or in other words, we forgot our pre-earth life with God and Jesus Christ. This forgetfulness makes it necessary for us to walk by faith on earth.

Our purpose in this life is to have joy and to prepare to return to live with God forever. What a glorious purpose! Seriously, how exciting! To have joy and get ready to return to live with God! How do we do this? We must follow God and keep His commandments. Following God’s commandments not only brings us joy but also helps us become more like Him so that we can return to live with Him, Jesus Christ and our families after this life.

Because of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us we can do and overcome all things, even death. His sacrifice is called the Atonement. It includes His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, His death on the cross and His resurrection when he rose from the dead to live again. As we turn to Christ, keep God’s commandments, and use His Atonement in our lives, we will be prepared to return to live with God and our joy will be eternal.

Knowing that this is my purpose on earth has given me such direction in my life as I make decisions, as I interact with others and as I face challenges and temptations. While joy is available to us in this life, there is also a great deal of sadness, hurt, loneliness, anger and so many other hard things. I know that each and every challenge that is presented to us in this life can help us grow and can be endured and overcome through Christ and His Atonement. I have felt this as I have overcome the sorrow that comes from losing a cousin to suicide, another cousin to cancer, an aunt to drug overdose, an uncle to cancer and the death of grandparents. Through Christ, that sorrow has been replaced with greater understanding and peace and comfort. I have been strengthened through Christ’s Atonement to do hard things, things that are scary and wildly intimidating to me again and again. I have felt forgiveness when I have done wrong and I have felt joy, so much joy, real joy.

I know that keeping the commandments will always bring us joy. Sometimes that joy is not immediate and lots of times other people may not understand why we choose to keep God’s commandments but I know we will never regret the choice to be obedient to Him.

Remember your purpose. Have joy and prepare to return to live with your Heavenly Father forever by keeping His commandments. Let this guide your future and the day to day decisions you make now. Will you do this? I know that if we do, we will see God again and that we can live with Him and Christ and our families forever after this life.