Tag: A Word for Wednesday

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Whose World Is This, Anyway?

As a young boy, I would join other Sunday School children in singing, “This Is My Father’s World,” and though I’d been taught God was to us a heavenly Father, for all the world as we sang those lyrics I’d also think of my dad in the exaggerated dimensions that come naturally to five-year-olds. This was my Father’s world, and in a sense, it was my father’s world as well; at least he was to me the strongest part of it. And now, given the events in the U.S. over the past several days—deception and dissension, malfeasance and mistrust, retribution and revenge—I return to my childhood wonder and consider again, Whose world is this, anyway?

In dire times like these, we cry out from deep within to the God we know is greater than us. Humankind spins out of control—our own doing—and we beg our Maker to come and fix our world for us, much as we might call a contractor to hasten to our home to keep a problem from becoming a disaster or a disaster from resulting in destruction. Only God is wise, powerful and good enough to remedy what our worldly self-will has wrought, and somehow we all know this. How many times have we beseeched Him, and how many times has He rescued us when only He could do so?

In all of this, we easily lose sight of one immovable premise: This is our Father’s world. Wrote David, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”1 God created everything through His pre-incarnate Son: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”2 And God reigns over that which He owns: “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”3 In short, God owns the place, and He cares for it infinitely more than we do.

Then it is God who calls us to avail ourselves to Him, so that He would work His will in His world through us. We cry out to Him, yes, for He is wisdom amid our folly and His strength overpowers our own, but may we also hear Him and give ourselves entirely to Him today, for as the world pleads for help, God responds through us, His people.

“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”4—Jesus the Son, to God the Father

Father, this is Your world, not ours; You love it more than we do. Forgive us our sins, overcome our fear, and establish us in Your path. Strengthen us to do as You call us to do here among the people You love. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Psalm 24:1-2
2 John 1:3
3 1 Chronicles 29:11
4 John 17:18

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Our Identity: We Are Forever Alive

“Our identity in Christ”—is it just me, or do you also hear and perhaps even utter these words with increasing frequency? We know our existence as believers in Christ to be a good thing, though surely our notions of this phrase vary widely among us. Yet it is vital that we understand our selfhood in Christ, for truth sets us free,1 as Jesus said, and who we are informs how we live. Over the next few weeks, then, let’s take time to understand and embrace our identity in Christ.

The Bible teaches us that, ever since “the fall” in Eden, sin has permeated the human condition and we are born separated from Christ2 and from the life of God.3 Yet all who place their trust in Jesus go through profound change, ultimately a complete change, for in fact we are made new. In a natural sense, we are no different than before we believed—we live and breathe; we grow, then fade—but inwardly we spring from death to life, for as Jesus said, whoever believes in Him “shall not perish but have eternal life.”4 How does this happen? In Christ is life itself,5 and when we entrust our fleeting existence to His imperishable one, “the Spirit gives birth to [our] spirit”6—His life bears life in us. Moreover, “God’s seed remains in” all who are thus born of God,7 sustaining us forever. Knowing this, we can confess with Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”8

Our identity is in Christ, and we are forever alive. This is who we are, and we must understand this. For we no longer have reason to fear death, rather we have every reason not to. We can cease our striving to close the gap between ourselves and God, for we are separated from Him no longer. We have good news for those without hope, and also for those with false hope, for we have been “born into a living hope,”9 and so may they.

Father, how loving You are that you would send Your Son to pay for our sins. How wise You are to breathe into us the life of Him who will never die. How kind You are to free us from fear and deliver us from death. Thank You. Use us. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 John 8:32
2 Ephesians 2:12
3 Ephesians 4:18
4 John 3:16
5 John 1:4
6 John 3:6 ESV
7 1 John 3:9 ESV
8 Galatians 2:20 AMP
9 1 Peter 1:4

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Running with Purpose

I heard a new family story over the holidays. My niece, Meghan—I’ve written before of her excellence as a high school track athlete—was competing one day in the 400-meter dash. As she ran this grueling event, her mind actually wandered for a while, losing sight of her situation until at some point she snapped back to the reality of the moment. “And I realized, ‘I’m in a race!’” she recalled. Then regaining her focus, Meghan mustered a final “kick” and won. I find her story to be so unrelatable on so many levels—running fast and thinking about anything other than gasping for air, to name a couple. Yet in another sense, Meghan’s story serves as a reminder to all of us that our life here is more than going through the motions while we stride toward the finish line and what awaits us on the other side—we run this life with a very specific purpose.

And what might this purpose be? What is it that demands our all? We are here to bring glory to God. In His sermon on the mount, Jesus exhorted those gathered to hear him, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”1 We do this by letting Jesus shine in us and through us in all things and at all times. Wrote Paul to Corinthian believers, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”2 The glory of God—this is why we are here; this is “the reality of the moment” on which we fix our focus.

Then how does this celestial aspiration become reality in our terrestrial existence? We align our will with God’s will in trusting union with Him, so that we “do not run aimlessly.”3 And we rely on His strength, for “by his power he [brings] to fruition [our] every desire for goodness and [our] every deed prompted by faith . . . so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in [us], and [we] in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”4

We’re in a race! We run with purpose: To bring God glory. We win in Christ.

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. John 15:8

Father, sometimes my mind wanders and my focus drifts away from You. Draw me back into the moment that I would live with purpose—to glorify You in all things by the power of Your Spirit. In Christ I pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 5:16
2 1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV
3 1 Corinthians 9:26 ESV
4 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12