"In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)Good stuff, really. You may not remember that earlier in that same discourse he said, "He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things." (Acts 17:25)
Now, let's just take those two, simple statements. "In Him we live and move and have our being" and "He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things." Think about that. Because I'm pretty sure you and I don't actually see God that way.
We're generally self-sufficient people. We feed ourselves, dress ourselves, get ourselves out of bed in the morning, that sort of thing. Most of us earn our own living, pay our own way. I mean, for the vast majority of us we get ourselves through everyday living. We're mostly doing okay. Sometimes we're not. In those times we go to God. "Please, dear God, get me through this." "Please, dear Lord, give me the strength today to do what's right in this situation." "Please, Father, give me peace in this situation." But the rest of the time we have it covered.
You see, though, that Paul disagrees. Paul said that God gives all (a superlative) people life, breath, and all (another superlative) things. You do not live because of your ability to do so. You do not breathe because of your own capacity to inhale and exhale. Everything you have was given to you by God. Get this. The only way you are even able to move is because of God. If He did not make it so, you and I would not exist. In Colossians we read, "In Him all things hold together." (Col 1:17) The very subatomic particles that make you and me consist in Him. If He didn't make it so, you and I would not be.
From the first day of Adam and Eve's sin it has been all about "me". "I will be like the Most High." We call it "sin", but it's really an entire worldview where we are the center. And it is a lie. We do not have the simple ability to take a breath if God did not enable it. When we ask Him to "get me through this", the reasonable question would be, "Who do you think got you through everything else?" When we pray for strength for this trial, the truthful response from God would be, "I gave you the strength to get out of bed this morning." Without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5).
Perhaps you can begin to see why it is God's will that we should give thanks in everything (1 Thess 5:18).
8 comments:
Considering that one of the names of God is "I AM" we invoke his name every time we invoke our own. "I Am" bob, "I AM" Bill, ect... God is so preeminent in all we are, that we cannot even describe ourselves with out first giving credit to God, our creator...
Well ... sure, but when God said, "I AM", He meant something beyond simple identity. It was more at "I EXIST" or, better, "I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN." He was declaring Himself the Self-existent One. One of a kind. Only God is self-existent. It's why the Jews sought to stone Christ to death when He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:58-59) We mean nothing like that when we say, "I am ..." Well, most of us.
it is interesting to note that the term is in the perfect tense. indicating more than past tense. the great "I AM" is ever present tense. we use words that are time sensitive, He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. well even though "I am" using a play on words, it is interesting to note that Moses was asking the question " who shall i say sent me ?" tell them "I Am" sent you. great stuff..
Yes, "I AM" ... "I always AM ... always have been, always will be, without any source or cause." Oh, here's another cool word -- aseity. That's the word.
i hate it when your smarter than me.. so i looked it up, where do you find this stuff?
when ever i try to fathom the idea, of "always was" my head explodes. its just too much. for us everything has a beginning. so to think about God "not" having a beginning boggles the mind.
"Holds a lot of worthless, unknown words in his head" doesn't equate to "smarter". Like "the perspecuity of Scripture" which refers to the fact that Scripture can be understood with a description that cannot. Sigh.
It also doesn't help you to eschew obvuscation when you use words like that.
Some think obfuscation is what I live by.
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