God Is Personally Involved In Each of Our Lives

13 Mar

God Is Personally Involved In Each of Our Lives

I’m sure I have read this passage numerous times over the course of my life. But when I came across Acts 17: 24-28a recently again, I was moved by the action God continues to take on our behalf. He didn’t create us and then drop us off to fend for ourselves.

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything… And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God…and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being…”

Not only did God create us, He also gives us “life and breath and everything”. He made nations, based on human societal connections, and determined what parts of the earth they would inhabit, including national boundaries. He set it up in such a way that people would seek Him and be able to find Him. But it is not that far of a stretch to find God because He is intricately and intimately involved in every part of our lives, because it is only in Him that we “live and move and have our being”.

1 Peter 1:3-4 reiterates the fact of God giving us all we need to exist:

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

In this passage, Peter specifies the addition of godliness to life as coming through “the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence”. On top of everything He granted us the “great and precious” promises, also a result of our knowledge of Him and His calling of us to His “own glory and excellence”. The reason for the promises is that we might become more and more like God in holiness and righteousness, growing into mature children of God.

What, then, should our response be to God’s continual participation in our lives? Titus 3:4-7 expresses the answer to this question in terms of good works (i.e. obedience to God), not to save us, but out of gratitude for the grace that has made us heirs to the hope of eternal life:

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life…so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.”

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Thank you for reading my Devotional, especially if you follow it every week. This is the final time I will be placing this message at the end of my devotional for now so if you have already responded to it, you don’t need to do so again.

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