GodReflection: Power Word Wednesday

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. – 1 John 2:6

There is a vast difference between exist and live. To live without purpose is to exist.

Thousands of self-help books spew constantly from printing presses and digital media. Unless they are underpinned by the Holy the best they can do is aid task accomplishment.

Self help books cannot teach me how to live.

To live is to experience purpose, contentment, hope, trust, peace, and joy as I trust Jesus and the Holy Spirit to guide my daily walk and as I trust God with my future.

To live is to experience pain, loss, Satanic scratches and bruises, and the valley of death as I trust Jesus and the Holy Spirit to guide my daily walk and as I trust God with my future.

The Bible is nothing more and nothing less than God’s story.

As His purpose reaches a climax in what we call The New Testament there is a common thread that runs from The Gospel of Matthew through The Book of Revelation.

I’m impressed with how Jesus’ theme “to live” is central to each writer of the Gospels and the Letters.  

That Holy filament is God’s desire for me to live like Jesus. From the moment that I declared, “I’m in” my highest purpose is to live like Jesus as I navigate my earth trek.

Since I am not Jesus, perfection can’t be found in my performance level. That leaves me to live like Jesus while making peace with my imperfections—yet keeping my desire red hot to live more as he wants me to live.

Thus to love God and my neighbor I am to live from the nourishment of every word that comes from the mouth of God,  I am to live by the voice of the Son of God and I will rise to live eternally.

Through Jesus flesh and blood he brings me bread from heaven and if I eat of this bread I will live forever.

By living my daily walk with Jesus he gives me the Spirit of truth—the Spirit of Jesus—who lives with me and is in me. As I hike my trail I can trust Jesus’ promise, “Because I live, you also will live.”

I am fascinated with Paul’s concern for authentic life throughout the content of his thirteen letters in my New Testament.

In Romans 14:18 his summation is: If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

To live for Jesus I am to live by faith, not by sight. To live by faith I am to keep in step with the Spirit. My fuel for the faith journey is faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Since Jesus died to give me life I am to no longer live for myself, but for him who died for me and was raised again. To do so I live as a child of light.  

Along my walk I am to be very careful how I live—not as unwise but as wise so that I may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.

Here is what I think.

It matters how I live. To live must rate high in the power words of life. It dishonors God when I only exist. He created me to live.

To live does not depend upon health or upon being dealt good cards or bad cards. To live is totally and completely tied to my degree of trust in the Holy.

To live is to see life as a walk with Jesus from now to the grave, to the resurrection, and to the eternal.

That makes the word live a word bursting in power, don’t you think?

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on to Live as a Word of Power.

Gary@Godreflection.org     www.MakeYourVisionGoViral.com