What Does the Bible Say About Purpose In Life?

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 69 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Psalm 138:8 ESV / 68 helpful votes

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 65 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 8:28 ESV / 42 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Matthew 5:13-16 ESV / 37 helpful votes

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Revelation 4:11 ESV / 32 helpful votes

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Habakkuk 2:3 ESV / 32 helpful votes

For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

Ephesians 1:11 ESV / 31 helpful votes

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Romans 12:1-5 ESV / 31 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Job 22:21 ESV / 30 helpful votes

“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.

Galatians 1:15 ESV / 22 helpful votes

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 18 helpful votes

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Mark 12:30-31 ESV / 16 helpful votes

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 16 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV / 15 helpful votes

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Isaiah 55:11 ESV / 14 helpful votes

So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Ezra 10:4 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.”

Psalm 90:12 ESV / 13 helpful votes

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 73:26 ESV / 13 helpful votes

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 57:2 ESV / 13 helpful votes

I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

John 16:13 ESV / 12 helpful votes

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

John 5:30 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Psalm 8:6 ESV / 10 helpful votes

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,

2 Timothy 1:9 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

1 Corinthians 1:27 ESV / 9 helpful votes

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

Philippians 4:7 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 28:19-20 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

1 John 1:9 ESV / 7 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2 Timothy 2:14-15 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 7 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

John 14:6 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Luke 18:1-8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” ...

Matthew 16:25 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Job 32:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.

Revelation 21:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 3:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ...

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 6 helpful votes

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 6:15-20 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ...

1 Corinthians 3:12-15 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Romans 6:17 ESV / 6 helpful votes

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

John 16:33 ESV / 6 helpful votes

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Micah 6:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Psalm 119:105 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Job 7:11 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

James 1:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, ...

Philippians 3:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

1 Corinthians 10:1-33 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. ...

1 Corinthians 2:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

Mark 8:35 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

Isaiah 49:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.”

Psalm 100:1-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Job 23:1-17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then Job answered and said: “Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on account of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. ...

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

James 3:8-10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 2 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Acts 17:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Lamentations 3:38 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

Isaiah 46:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

Ephesians 3:3-5 ESV / 1 helpful vote

How the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 14:16-17 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.

Jeremiah 44:27 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Behold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them.

68 Bible Verses about Purpose In Life