If the Lord lets us live...

 


Read the following: James 4:13-16 / Psalm 3:5 / Psalm 68:19

The Lord sustained me from evening until morning (Psalm 3:5).
The Lord bears me up daily (Psalm 68:19).
I live today only because the Lord willed it to be so (James 4:16).


Think about those statements. So much of our life is pulled into just a handful of basic thoughts or pursuits: commerce, leisure, and planning for the future. It's not an exhaustive set of categories, but most of the things I do throughout the day, or thoughts that enter my mind, typically fall within one of those three.

Nothing wrong with any of them. We have to buy, sell and trade to get along in this world. We go to work, trading our time and effort for money which we will then, in turn, turn around and trade for the goods we need. It's just part of life the world over. We have things we enjoy doing, and enjoying things is not wrong! It's actually encouraged throughout the Bible (See Ecclesiastes 2:24, 3:12-13, 3:22, 5:18, 8:15, 9:7-9, and 11:7). And planning for the future is also commended as a wise task. We are instructed to consider the ant, and avoid becoming like the Sluggard (Proverbs 6:6-11).

But think about those verses again. We would do well (very well, in fact) to remember amid all of our commerce, all of our leisure, and throughout the plans that we make for the future that we are only alive today because our Holy, Sovereign, Wise, and Good God decreed it that we woke up this morning at all.

It is humbling to think that we are so completely dependent on Him for all things, and how our need for Him is daily: daily bread (Matthew 6:11), mercies new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23), life and breath (Acts 17:25), wisdom and understanding (Philemon 6), and our own eternal life in Christ (John 17:3).

We are never NOT in need of our gracious Lord and King.

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