Friday, September 29, 2017

Psalm 119:17 Living for God

Twitter is like a window into the soul of millions of people in the world. They tweet things they wouldn't tell anyone in person. People who don't interact with others at all find their outlet online.

That's why I go to Twitter when I want to know what people are thinking about a particular topic.

Today I searched Twitter for the phrase "reason for living"
mibil doesn't actually go on to say what her reason for living is. She just wanted to let the world know she found it. For most thinking people, it's a big deal to discover your reson for living.

The vast majority of tweets were like this next one. It's not a big surprise that a majority of people find their reason for living in their relationships.
But what happens when the relationship ends? A frequently tweeted quote has the answer to that:
There are others on Twitter who, seriously or not, find their reason for living in trivial things:


And then there are the philosophical tweets:

The following series of tweets struck me, as J. Bocanegra contemplates the reason for living:



I certainly understand his conclusion. Writing is one of the primary things that gets me excited about life. I do indeed thank God I can write.

But writing cannot be my reason for living.

David was never on Twitter (although both he and Solomon would have rocked Twitter), but he did share his thoughts on the reason for living.
Be good to your servant so that I might live, that I may obey your word.


Psalm 119:17  
The first half of the verse is a prayer that is common to all people who have faith in God. It's similar to "give us this day our daily bread" in Jesus' model prayer. It expresses our most basic desire, that God will give us the good things we need in life. Indeed, as David puts it, the good things we need in order to live.

It's easy to get sidetracked in our prayers, asking God for all kinds of things that will bless us beyond mere sustenance of life. We want good weather. We want the car to keep going for another year. We want our kids to be happy. We want more mail or more cats.

But at the root of faith is reliance upon God's goodness to sustain life itself.

And, according to David in this verse, at the root of God's continued blessing of life itself is God's purpose for our continued life on earth.

 That I may obey your word.

Try that on for size.

God does indeed bless us with loved ones who make our lives fuller and vocations that give us joy and with cats and mail and other simple pleasures.

But among all the blessings, the greatest thing He gives us is the opportunity to obey His Word. Not the obligation to obey His Word or the necessity of obeying His Word, but the opportunity.

Living a life focused on living according to His character, as reflected in His Word, is the best reason for living. And for dying.
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