– – – – he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.– Acts 17:25
Every day I thank God for the gift of life, the gifts of life, and the Giver of life— Christ. While I doubt that we give the attention we should to any of these, I suspect that the first is the most neglected.
We speak of “life” as one of our “inalienable rights” in the Declaration of Independence, but I fear that we often forget that life is a precious gift from God. I don’t know about you, but I kind of like it. Actually I love life. We should be thankful for it and we should use it wisely. As has been said, “A life is a terrible thing to waste”. Life is God’s gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to God.
Being able to live is a great privilege, but it is also an awesome responsibility. Seeing that we received it from God we ought to spend it for God. We have no right to live as we please– unless we are pleased to please the Lord. The same God who gives us life holds us accountable for how we spend it. To waste our life would be a shame— and a sin. Like someone said, “Life is like a coin. You can spend it anyway you want, but you can spend it only once”. How are you spending it?
Different people do different things with their lives. While some use it to the best advantage, others are not so smart— they find a way to waste it. As one fellow said, “If you give one million people a paper clip, 2 will find a way to kill themselves with it”. Even so many do basically the same thing with their lives. While they start out with the same opportunities as others, they find a way to make themselves perfectly miserable, hurt others, and waste away what could have been of great eternal value. How smart is that?
It seems strange– some people who don’t know what to do with their life, and complain about everything under the the sun, want to live forever. Why? They are merely existing rather than truly living. They spend all their days without a sense of purpose, never finding any lasting peace or satisfaction. That is truly tragic! And senseless. Life doesn’t have to be that way. Through Christ you can have peace that passeth all understanding, joy unspeakable and full of glory, and a purpose in life, plus much more. It can be more satisfying than you ever imagined. Invested in Christian living it is not in vain.
