2003-04-28 - Life is Precious

Encore 1997-12-09

Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Life is a reality created by God. Life is His idea. So life must be precious. But it seems that life is not very precious today. A massacre, such as last month, in Egypt, where about 70 people were slaughtered, generates 2 days of news coverage. In Philadelphia, where I live, getting killed might put you on one news cast. But it is better to die with a few people if you really want coverage. If you are going to die in a car accident, your only hope of news coverage is to have your wreck on a major roadway, during rush hour, and make sure traffic gets really tied up. Traffic jams are always news worthy and people always want to know why they were stuck in them.

Lots of people do not live as if life was precious. People all around us, people who we know and care about, engage in destructive behavior everyday. It is as if many are saying that this gift of life is not precious to them. Regardless, life is a gift from God, and every moment of every day is a gift. The world carries on in reckless abandon, but as people of faith, we must defend the truth that life is precious. The satirist Jonathan Swift says, “May you live all the days of your life.”

This is a statement for the Christian to take to heart. A Christian is here on earth to serve Christ and His cause. In living our days, in order to really live them, we must be useful for God’s kingdom. A Christian who is not serving Christ has died an early death. One of the wonderful things about living the Christian life is that it is never to late to begin serving Christ, or to re-dedicate ourselves to making our lives more useful to God’s glory. It is never to late, and there is not much in life to which the phrase, never to late, applies. Ceasing from besetting sins, or renewing personal commitments to our Lord, can all begin fresh today. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9), is just as true today as it was the first day that we heard it. Life, in spite of influences to the contrary around us, is precious, and the life lived to God’s glory is even precious in God’s sight.

“Let God have your life; he can do more with it than you can.” D. L. Moody

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

tim@cfdevotionals.org
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