GOD, BECAUSE YOU ARE!

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (NASB)

Life is full of questions. From the moment we wake up until we go back to sleep, often it seems there is nothing but questions. Some are small, and some are huge. Some look small, but they just keep getting bigger. Some are routine—the answer is more reflex than thought—(kids say parents say “NO!” so often that they cannot say “Yes!”) Some questions seem to be answered “once and for all time” only to keep appearing again and again later.

Your attention is called to a BIG one that is never answered once and for all time. Life asks it over and over again—new situations arise only to ask us the same old question. The question: “Why belong to and serve God?” Someone you care about dies, and you prayed to God earnestly to let him/her live ... here comes the question! Someone you care about is sick, and you pray earnestly for recovery. The person does not and cannot get well ... here it comes again! Problems descend unexpectedly ... you are crushed! Your present is crushed! Your future seems crushed! All is immediately complicated! Dazed and bewildered, you are stunned as you watch the question coming at you again.

Yes, you have heard all the “correct” religious answers. “God sacrificed so much to provide you salvation.” “Jesus sacrificed so much for us on the cross!” “People hurt God so much for so long!” “Satan is enraged at God!” “Satan is determined to destroy us and will stop at nothing to bring the righteous misery!” Still, the question comes.

What were your expectations? A spiritual insurance policy? Special physical protection against evil “here and now”? Physical eternal life that ends disease and prevents accidents and aging? Honestly, does the question or the expectation cause our struggle?

God’s finest often suffered extensively and died horribly! Read Hebrews 11 recently? The righteous have never had a “special package for the physical here and now.”

Why do we belong to and serve God? Bottom line answer: because He is and always will be. Because He is, we shall meet him. Because He is bigger than physical life and death, we choose to serve Him. The answer to why: “because He is even when we will not be.”

David Chadwell

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Bulletin Article, 4 April 2010

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