God is life
Do you ever ponder the thought that we are twirling in a galaxy surrounded by billions of stars and other unknown galaxies? Our lives can often feel so small and unimportant as we think about the vast universe that we live in. When I find myself worrying about my circumstances, I remember to look up to the heavens for perspective. Psalm 8:3-4 says,
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”
The God who created the heavens, the galaxies, the moon and the stars by speaking them in existence also created us and is intimately aware of our every thought, our every need, and our every concern.
It is in these pondering moments that I recall that the God who made the galaxies and has given life to all created things, sees me! From God, all things were created and for God, we live. He is not only revealed in His creation but is close to everyone of us. Through His Holy Spirit, He lives within all who believe in Jesus Christ. Acts 17:28 says, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”
Over the course of this month we have been reminded of who God is as we read through 1 John. God is Light, God is Love, and today we are reminded that God is Life!
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are given an amazing gift and promise of eternal life— everlasting life!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“The everlasting life Jesus spoke of is not simply the unending life of eternity. It speaks of a quality of life. Some scholars even translate the idea of the words everlasting life into ‘life from heaven’ or ‘life from above.’ It means that we believe God gives His kind of life to us...The wonderful thing about this is that we can start living and enjoying the God-kind of life right now. God’s promises not only affect our present day, but helps prepare us for eternity with God in heaven.” (David Guzik)
It has been 26+ years since accepting Christ as my Lord and Savior and I have seen Jesus be faithful to me through the highs and the very lows of my life. I can personally attest to this: God is life and the sustainer of my life. He is the sole source of life! Psalm 36:9 says,
“You are the source of all life, and because of your light we see the light” (Good News Translation).
Many of us have wrestled with the question — what’s the point of our existence? When we attempt to answer this question apart from God, our lives can feel meaningless, at times hopeless, many times fearful, and even without purpose and sadly, perhaps, even useless. Without God breathing life, love, understanding, and meaning into our lives, life feels empty.
God knows the human heart intimately and understands that living in a fallen world can cause us to feel discouraged. In spite of this, God has a purpose for each one of us and it is good! Psalm 139:13-16 , conveys the truth of His intimate knowledge of us:
“Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God— you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day” (The Message).
What a loving Father we have; you and I have His very breath moving in and through us!
When we accept Christ’s gift of eternal life, we are agreeing with God that in Him alone is our True Life found! In my knowledge of this, I realize that my life is not just a testament to God’s goodness and glory, it’s a proclamation of it!
Understanding that we have an intimate and loving God who cares for us, the apostle John encourages us to approach God confidently through prayer.
The Good News is this: We serve a God who not only sees us, but hears us! He hears the deepest cries of our heart and promises to sustain us and even carry us when we feel we do not have the strength to go on. We are not traveling through this massive universe alone!
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us— whatever we ask— we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).
Prayer is a powerful tool where we can experience fellowship with God— through the good times and the hard times. In fact Jesus encourages us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18).
It is important for us to understand that God’s care for us is steadfast even in our darkest moments. It is in our most trying times that we have a deeper understanding of His faithful love— God’s presence is with us throughout our life whether we are conscious of it or not.
May I encourage you to approach God confidently this week? Let’s pray bold prayers knowing that the God who intimately knows our name, knows our heart and there is no limit to His understanding of us. Not only does He determine the number of the stars in the heavens, but He calls each of them by name!
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” (Psalm 147:3-5).