Medicine is amazing.

Think about it: just a few decades ago, people would’ve had to deal with headaches and their evil big brother migraines by either suffering through it or with alcohol.  It wasn’t that long ago that if someone had an allergy attack, they just had to tough it out.  Now?  Pop some over-the-counter medicine and carry on.

Medicine has made remarkable changes in our lives.  It even allows people with high blood pressure, diabetes, and arthritis live longer, healthier, and (probably) happier lives.  Seriously: that’s amazing!

The pursuit of many doctors and the medicines they prescribe is increasing “quality of life.”  As a recipient of these medicines, I’m grateful.  There is, however, something no medicine can do—one thing no prescription or medicine cabinet can provide.  The irony of it is this: it’s the very thing medicines attempt to do: increase the quality of life.

But you can live longer, healthier, and painless and still be miserable, lonely, and suffering because fulfillment doesn’t come from a pharmacy.  Finding purpose to our existence doesn’t come from “cheating death” and extending our lives.

Finding purpose is found, however, in the words of Psalm 91:14-16:

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call on me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life I will satisfy him

and show him my salvation.”

In the Old Testament, long life was considered a sign of God’s blessings.  If someone’s life was “cut short”, they were considered cursed.  Mind you: the Bible didn’t call them cursed but that was the understanding of people at the time.

And in the incredible promises found in these verses, we find the last sentence: God will satisfy His child with a long, satisfying life that reveals His salvation.  Translation: it’s good to be a kid of the King.  As the commercial goes, “membership has its privileges.”

The emphasis in that sentence is not so much on the “long life” but on the satisfaction and salvation the Lord will give His faithful followers.  The center of the Lord’s will really is the place where we find how we were made and truly understand our purpose on this earth.  We may not be happy, but we will be fulfilled.

“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me,” Jesus stated in John 14:21, “The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Medical science and its ability to extend our years is remarkable—no arguments there.  But only in a life lived in harmony with the Lord do we find those years worth living.  Discover your purpose in the Lord Jesus and find true “quality of life”: the life you were meant to live.