Tag: life

Does God Like Us?

Beautiful Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills

July 21 (Psalm 104:14-15)

You allow them to produce food from the earth—
     wine to make them glad,
olive oil to soothe their skin,
    and bread to give them strength.  (NLT)

You do not have to like people to love them.  In fact, being able to love without liking is something Christians are called to do.   Remember that whole “love your enemy” bit?  This is how forgiveness is possible.  We love those who do us wrong, even while fully admitting that what they did was indeed wrong and that we do not like it.  On the other hand, we all want to be liked, and this leads us to an important question.  Does God like us?  We know He loves us, a fact that was made clear for all time through the death and resurrection of Jesus, but does He actually like us?

The answer is yes, and Psalm 104 proves it.  Because God loves us, He gives us what we need, but because He likes us, He goes beyond that.  Bread for strength is necessary, but wine to gladden the heart?  Olive oil to soothe the skin?  We can live without those last two, but that is not what God wanted for us.  It is true that Jesus said we are to deny ourselves and follow Him, but we often take this too far, assuming that God is a harsh taskmaster wanting nothing but Spartan soldiers as His followers.

Ponder this for a moment.  God gave us wine to gladden us and olive oil to soothe our skin.  He orchestrated the songs and calls of the animal kingdom to fill us with music and He painted the oceans and landscapes and the far-flung reaches of space with colors to dazzle and thrill our eyes.  How, then, will it change your relationship with Him to know just how much God likes you?

Lord, You have shared with us the glories of Your imagination brought to life.  First of all, thank You.  I truly do thank You for the glory and wonder and spectacle and comfort and adventure that You have spread before us.  Thank You for liking us enough to give us such a life now, and thank You for loving us enough to give us life everlasting with You.  In the name of Jesus, through whom and for whom all things were made, amen.

You Will Never Die

Earth_from_space

April 14 (John 11:25-26)

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”  (NLT)

You will live forever.  You will not die.  Even when your body gives out and your heart stops beating and someone records the official time of your death, you will not be dead.  Stop and think about that.  Seriously.  Stop reading this and consider the immensity, the eternality of the fact that you will keep on living forever.

We often speak of getting the 10,000-foot view of a situation.  It helps us see more clearly all that is going on so that we can focus appropriately on what matters.  Friends, nothing will give you a better or more accurate perspective than these words of Jesus to Martha.  Don’t believe me?  Try this.  How do the activities of the week ahead look in light of the fact that you will live forever?  How do the needling little problems look, the ones you just don’t want to deal with?  How do the huge, threatening ones appear?  If people look like ants from the top of a skyscraper, how do the things of your life look from eternity?

Even Christians can get caught up in a shortsighted view of life.  There is a contentious meeting on Thursday or a difficult appointment next month, and suddenly we are thrown into a tailspin of worry and fear.  Our anxiety shoots off the chart as we try to steel ourselves against an unwanted inevitable.  Those things are real, of course.  Problems don’t disappear from 10,000 feet, but they do take on a different look.  And when we see things from the true perspective that we will still be living an eternity from now, we realize that many of them are less important than we thought.

God, You remind us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that You have given us an eternal perspective, and Jesus makes it clear that we will live forever.  Help me to see things as they truly are so that I may give the time and talent that You have given me to the things that matter most.  Keep me from a shortsighted view of life.  In the name of Jesus, who kept the glory set before Him in sight as He endured death on a cross, amen.