There Is No Way I Can Live Without You

There Is No Way I Can Live Without You

Romans 8:38-39

In this life, we can get caught up in the niceties.  Sure, everyone wants to have a nice place to live, a reasonable portion of clothing, and to be able to eat more than beans and franks on a daily basis.  However, when we start looking around, and seeing how the other man lives, we may get jealous, and cry out to God, and ask why we can’t have what they do.

Let’s look a little closer.  What drives you, and what do you find to be important?  Some say that it’s faith in God.  Others may say to be surrounded by a loving family makes you happy.  Still others want to be with their friends and have some fun.

While food, fun and fellowship are good, and it has its place, the most important question is where you will spend eternity.  How many people know that we were born to die?  I’m not trying to be morbid, but because of the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, that took away our privilege to live forever.  Unfortunately, we have a birthday, and one day we will die.  Unless we’re “raptured”, which simply means that we will, in an instant, be translated from this mortal body into eternity, without dying (the dead in Christ will rise first, and we who remain will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air), we will certainly close our eyes and breathe our last breath, and fall asleep on this side.

That being said, God has a plan and purpose for our lives, which by the way, includes Him.  Yes, He gives us free will to do what we want, but just know that there are consequences for our actions.  We have choices.  The question is, what are we going to do with them?  You see, as children, we think that we can’t live without our parents and siblings, or our favorite family members, friends and toys.

As we grow, we fall in love for the first time, and can’t bear the thought of being separated from that special someone.  Our existence is built around them, and then if they move away, or if they don’t feel the same way that we do, our heart is destroyed for the time being.

As adults, we develop affinities to certain people, places and things.  We may like to go on vacation with our friends and turn up.  We may have a favorite spot that we like to visit.  We may develop a taste for the finer things in life, and if we have a lifestyle or profession that we’ve been blessed to be able to support it, all the better.

Please understand that I’m not saying that money is a bad thing, or that you shouldn’t like nice clothes or a great house, apartment or condominium.  If you have found yourself in an affluent place, good for you.  However, if this takes all of your time to support it, you may have lost sight of what’s really important.

You may not be able to bear losing that obese house with the Olympic sized pool in the suburbs, or losing your seven figure employment.  It may be hard to give your bling and nice clothing to the Salvation Army for someone else to be blessed to wear it.  If your Cadillac Escalade gets repossessed due to a sudden stock market crash, and you would have to move back to the hood, would your world be rocked?

Some people wouldn’t be able to handle it, and they may hurt themselves, or sink into a deep depression.  However, if you have the mindset of gratitude, and you simply ask the Lord to “give us this day, our daily bread”, then none of that stuff means anything.  When you recognize God for who He is, and not just seek Him for what He can provide for you (i.e., the gifts), then you find out real quick what you can and cannot live without.

Let me break it down further for you.  The basics in life are food, clothing and shelter.  Beyond that, you would need some money in order to maintain a relatively modest lifestyle.  Believe it or not, there are people worse off than you that would love to be in your shoes.  You may not have a whole lot, but in comparison to other people, they may not have anything.

This is why we need to count our blessings, and hold onto God with everything we have.  We may never walk down a red carpet.  Our names may never be in lights, or we may not be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.  We may not be voted in as President, Prime Minister, King or Queen of anything.  But if our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, then we have achieved the greatest thing that is more valuable than any accolade in this current existence.

While I’m on that subject, if you happen to hold an office in the five-fold ministry (apostle, prophet, pastor, bishop/overseer or evangelist), that’s great, but please understand that we are just regular people who have a higher level of accountability.  In other words, don’t get it twisted!  Let’s remain humble and thankful that God chose us to spread the good news of the Gospel to a lost and dying world that needs to hear the word and be encouraged into an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who died for everyone, so that we can live.

My prayer is that if you can’t answer that all important question that I posed earlier, that you would talk to someone you know that is a Christian you trust, in order to find out who Jesus is, and why He was and is the most important Person you will ever meet, and want to be in relationship with.  He loves you, and wants you to get to know him in a very real and simplified way.

May the Lord bless you!