Devotions this week are based on Week 3 of “He Shall Be Called: Everlasting Father” (CLICK HERE)
Have you ever wondered why the human spirit desires to live? Sure there are some due to very hard and tragic mental conditions that have no desire to live (if you are one, seek professional medical and spiritual help). However, inside each person is a desire to live and have purpose and significance.
Have you ever stopped and asked, “Why is that?”
Why does humanity have the desire to find the “fountain of youth”? Why do people fight so hard to survive? Why is death the topic and event to be avoided?
The truth is not found in the humanistic, “survival of the fittest,” but rather in Genesis where God almighty created humanity to live forever, sustained by the “Tree of Life.” In Genesis 3, after the fall into sin, God in his mercy removed the ability of Adam and Eve and future humanity to eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Death is a consequence of sin. Inside each of us is the desire to avoid the consequence of sin, even though we are sinners.
The fact is we will all die, and we will all live forever. The question is will our experience be the eternal fires of hell or the eternal joys of heaven. Jesus speaks of the divide in Matthew 25:41,46 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
The reason that Jesus came into the world as the Everlasting Father is to ensure all who believe in him will have eternal life in heaven. John 3:16 speaks it well, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
How do we know this? Jesus himself was not overcome by death, but rather came alive, assuring us we too will live forever. John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
The benefit? I don’t have to be afraid of death, but rather look forward to it, because my Everlasting Father has given me everlasting life!
Apply: How does knowing you will live forever because of Jesus, give perspective to the challenges of today?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for securing for me eternal life. Help me every day to live in view of eternity with you! AMEN.