For you have delivered me from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. – Psalm 56:13

Created for God’s Purpose

All things were created by God: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. All things were created by him and for him (Colossians 1:16). This includes mankind. From the beginning, God had a clear purpose in creating humans:

“The LORD God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 3:15).

“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28).

God’s intention was that humanity would serve Him—by tending creation, multiplying, and exercising godly dominion over the earth. Man was not created for himself but for God. He had this purpose set before he made them. The creation cannot create itself, and the purpose for its creation must therefore be found in the creator alone. We can conclude here that man was created for God.

The Fall and the Broken Purpose

Then came the enemy. Sin entered and corrupted man, turning his focus away from God to self and worldly desires. The damage extended beyond man to all of creation. The earth became unsafe, groaning under the weight of sin.

Created Anew in Christ Jesus—For God

God’s purpose never changed. To restore us, He sent Jesus as the Saviour of the world. Paul said, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). At the first creation, God made man for his own works. At the second creation in Christ Jesus, the purpose is still to do the good works “which God prepared in advance for us to do”. It can be concluded here that we were born for God and born again for him. All of it is for his purposes, not ours.

Saved From Harm—For God

Sin has not only endangered souls but made the physical world perilous. Paul described this vividly:

“In danger from the rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers” (2 Corinthians 11:26).

In summary, dangers everywhere you turn. He lived to tell these stories because God kept him. Why was he preserved amid all these? Jesus told him,

“I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 22:17-18).

Find the reason for your preservation and live it out

Paul was saved from sin and from physical harm so that he could proclaim the gospel of Christ. God is not haphazard – he doesn’t just do things. He has all things willed and planned out. Coincidence and happenstance are only true for limited mortals like you and me. For God, there is a purpose to all that he does. While there are smaller areas, subsets of the whole, where he has preserved you to occupy and which it is your duty to identify, the big picture is that you were made, have been saved, and are being saved, for him.

Many Before You Have Found It

The Psalmist David captured it succinctly in our main text above: “For you have delivered me from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.” By his own testimony, David was delivered from wild animals by God (1 Samuel 17:34-37). He was delivered from Saul’s deadly jealousy and the attempts on his life by enemies, including within his household. He was kept from killing Nabal and shedding blood. These acts of deliverance, he said, were so that he may walk before God in the light of life.

That is a beautiful way to capture one’s purpose for existence. The details will come from walking with God and listening to the Spirit’s guidance for each step. Proverbs 3:6 says, “Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.”

What you have termed ‘somehow’ was God at work, preserving you for himself

Can you also, in one simple, unambiguous purpose statement, say why you are being kept and what your life will pursue? Why were you born? Countless have died through stillbirths; many were lost through spontaneous or wilful abortions; others have been killed by so-called childhood killer diseases. The very roads that you have walked or ridden on and returned home safely have ended others. Various dangers, like Paul listed, have befallen you, but ‘somehow’ you have survived. What you have termed ‘somehow’ was God at work, preserving you for himself.

MOSES. When Pharaoh and his people felt threatened by Israel’s growth, he gave this order: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live” (Exodus 1:22). It was in this same Nile that God preserved Moses until Pharaoh’s daughter found him. In Acts 7, Stephen’s powerful message chronicles the events leading up to Moses’ birth and the purpose for his preservation from the dangers of Egypt: to rescue Israel from slavery.

JOSEPH. Left to Joseph’s brothers, their evil machinations had worked perfectly, and the threat that he posed had become at best a memory when they sold him to Egypt. But God, the deliverer, had other plans. In revealing himself to them many years later, Joseph said, “God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:7). That too, can serve as a purpose statement; it captured why God preserved him. He didn’t waste his time settling scores because he knew why God delivered him: to preserve a remnant and save lives by a great deliverance.

JESUS. Though his purpose for coming to earth was to die for our sins, God kept Jesus from untimely death. Both when the Jews tried to seize him but failed and when they were grated by his words but didn’t make an attempt on his life, John says that was so “because his time had not yet come” (John 7:30; 8:20). The Living Bible says while on earth, this same Jesus, who came to die, prayed “with tears and agony of soul to the only one who would save him from premature death” (Hebrews 5:7). He knew his God-ordained purpose was to die for the sins of God’s people, but not any death would do. He had to die on purpose, at the appointed time, and for a reason.

Why Have You Been Preserved?

The first man was made and kept in Eden, to have dominion, to care for it and fill the earth through his offspring. The purpose was larger than him alone, but he had to do his work in Eden while his descendants would spread all over the earth. Wherever he went, Eden was his base. What is your own God-ordained space where he has crafted you with unique skills, abilities and temperaments to serve his purpose?

We must know the purpose of God’s mercies

Zechariah the father of John the Baptist captured the purpose for their preservation this way: “Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— … to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:71-75). So that the enemies don’t successfully hinder the fulfilment of God’s purpose, he brings deliverance. We must know the purpose of God’s mercies. When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse, they say, is inevitable.

Why didn’t you die in your mother’s womb? Why weren’t you killed by the diseases that have taken the lives of other children? If only you knew the numbers that malaria, transmitted by that insect that you can squash to death with a simple clap of your hands, has racked up. Why hasn’t it killed you? Just think of the variety of ways that people’s lives have been ended, and see how you have come through those same things as though they do not harm. Why have you been preserved? To use David’s words, it is so that you may walk before God in the light of life. This is the purpose of your deliverance from both sin and trouble.

Why have you been preserved? To use David’s words, it is so that you may walk before God in the light of life

A Preserved Life Is a Purposeful Life

When Jesus sent for the colt to be untied and brought to him, he told the two disciples, “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it’” (Luke 19:31). The reason for the colt’s freedom from bondage was to serve the Lord’s need. It is the same with us. That is the answer to your own preservation: The Lord needs you. God didn’t preserve you so that you would advance your own agenda or expand your fiefdom, but for himself and his purposes. Find the reason for your preservation and live it out. While the specifics will vary for different persons, the general theme will be the same: that you may walk before God in the light of life and that you may serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all your days. After all, all things were made by him and for him, for his glory. Therefore, whatever you do, do it for his glory. That’s why you exist and have been kept.