GOD
has given us one thing for which we could never repay. Life. Our lives.
This is a Note to Self (read as yours at
your discretion and peril):
Does
it not seem strange to you, in your bitterness and complaints, that you expect
more from God — because He’s God — than you should? He gave you your life. He gives
you life. Would it not be more appropriate, more just, to praise Him for the
air you have in your lungs right now? To thank Him for those thinking abilities
that you use to besmirch His holy name when things don’t go right for you? To
revere Him for those senses you use apart from His will? To laud Him for the
cravings of goodness that you oft let so casually go awry?
If
God owes us anything, and let’s be certain, He
does not, would it not be better to thank Him for that thing He gave us our
lifetime ago? Do we not owe Him that
debt?
From
where does life — the power to live — come?
Consider
these poignant Scriptures.
“Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it! I will bring great disaster upon all these
people; but I will give you your life as
a reward wherever you go. I, the Lord, have
spoken!”
— Jeremiah 45:5 (NLT, italics added)
This
passage commends us not to join crooked enterprises for our own gain. God will
bring great disaster on them and we’ll be implicated for our compromise. No, it
would be best not to seek great things for yourself. God is giving to me my
life as a reward for the living, for
His purpose, as I refuse to enter into wanton idolatry.
“Behold,
[Satan], all that Job has is in your
hand. Only against him do not stretch
out your hand.”
— Job 1:12 (ESV, italics added)
The
theology here is problematic, but it is something we do well to accept. Evil
will seek to corral us, but God will not allow evil to hurt us physically,
protecting our lives. But every other form of suffering is possible in this
life.
These
Scriptures in unison herald one classic truth: God gives life; He saves, protects, and rewards us with life.
Being
summarily happy having your life, and needing nothing else to satisfy you,
means there is but one remaining
conundrum — death. But with
faith in Christ there is both the hope in this life — a purpose to live for —
and in eternity beyond this life indeed to stretch toward. We’re laden with
hope that ought to produce peace and overflow us with joy.
You
have been divinely appointed to live
your life. You have been dropped from eternity — or, if you believe otherwise,
somewhere foreign to this physical realm (let’s not get hung up on theology) —
into your life. It is yours. God gave
it to you for you, and, in that way,
for His glory, as you live it fully in accord with His wish for you.
So,
from where does life come? From God, of course. From God, for you. It is His gift
to you, to live. Will you take it? It is, after all, your responsibility.
Nobody but you can accept responsibility for it. It’s up to you.
Will
you take this life that He gave you, not judging it, not looking through it nor
hating it for any reason?
Will
you go now, making it your own, taking it with both hands, walking with it with
both feet, making the most of the life you have?
Will
you agree today to accept your life as it was and has been given? Every moment
of pain and fury, accepting every chastisement, as good and bountiful, as
productive for the time before you now.
Will
you?
If
so, then hear the Holy Spirit utter these words of life into your soul:
Your life is yours, my son /
daughter.
Be you, today, and Live.
And, importantly, look to life for nothing
else but ME.
Simply
live.
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