God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
A heavy leather Bible sits on the table in an antique store. Its intricate carvings are filled with dust, and the gold that once distinguished its pages is almost entirely worn off. One day, the old Bible sells for a large sum of money, and the purchaser tucks it into a bag to take home and probably place on a lofty shelf.
Is this the place God holds in our life? Down a dark, narrow corridor between the little known and the less or used? Is God removed from our daily cares and contemporary concerns, part of a world of camels and patriarchs, white robes and Roman rule? We can get so carried away with putting scripture into the context of its own day that we forget its relevance to ours.
Jesus came to the common people and spoke to their current problems rather than offering long winded treaties on Levitical law, he summed up the commandments with: Love God and love each other. He outwitted the scholars and enlighten the masses with the same words. Christ came to be active, pertinent and powerful, not to dust off scrolls and way down His people with rules. He came to save us. He said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). Jesus understood the weight the people carried, and He took it on Himself.
Today we deal with abuse in the church, a changing family unit, questions of sexual identity, racial tensions, human cloning and suicide bombers. We may feel these concerns are too much for God, but none of it overwhelms Him. He is with us as we check on her sleeping children. He feels our fear as we make airline reservations. The fact they seem too crushing for us to grapple with, but not so for God.
Jesus said, “Have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead but the God of the living” (Matthew 22:31-32). And today He is my God and your God. He is not obscure. He is relevant.
Dig Deeper:
Read Psalm 46:1 and Hebrews 13:8. Ponder your week. What part of it have you been tempted to think God was disengaged from? How do you think even those parts might be part of His handiwork?
Prayer:
God, thank you for being the God of the living.
