3 Jun 2015
As God lives, so do all who belong to him. And since God lives eternally, all who belong
to him live eternally. This is what
Jesus is getting at when he quotes that famous line from Exodus: “I am the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” This is how he taught the idea of
resurrection and eternal life.
God is the one constant in life and death. Abraham is born and dies. Isaac is born and dies. Jacob is born and dies. Every person is born and dies. But God is the God of them all. From one generation to the next, God is
there, ever-present, ever-faithful.
Through the centuries, through the millennia, God remains constant. As God lives, so do all who belong to
him. And since God lives eternally, all
who belong to him live eternally.
And one of the prime ways we show that we belong to God, not
as a slave, but as a friend, is that we turn to him in prayer—with thanks, with
praise, with our needs. In the story of
Tobit and Sarah, we see two people who are already living eternal life. They definitely have their problems; but they
turn to God. They are firmly attached to
God and rely on his help and guidance.
Of course, this is an example for us to follow. We turn to God, we pray to him so that we can really live.
Sometimes it’s a prayer of thanks we offer up. Sometimes it’s sorrow for having made yet
another stupid mistake. Sometimes it’s a
tearful prayer because we’re at our wits end.
Whatever the reason, we make the prayer of the psalmist our own: “To
you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.”
And in lifting up our souls, we join ourselves to the One who
is constant. From before time began
until long after time ceases, God lives.
And as God lives, so do all who belong to him; so do all who say from
the heart: “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.”
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