God is a very persistent giver. He is so persistent, in fact, that He wants to give you everything that He has. This list is limitless and reaches beyond our biggest dreams and most expansive thoughts because God is both infinite and eternal. So when He promises to give us everything that He has, only limited by how much we want, that doesn’t just mean some goodness or some mercy — it means He wants to give us everything.
God’s promises make clear that He works everyday to give us things like,
Happiness. Joy. Peace. Abundance. Wisdom. Increase. Love. Vitality. Effectiveness. Influence. Insight. Creativity. Empowerment. Opportunity. Justice. Relationships. Friendship.
And — Eternal Life.
When faced with our own mortality, we can feel small in comparison to God’s immortality, until we realize that His immortality is on the list. Not only does God want to give us all the good things this temporary life has to offer, God wants to give us His immortality as well.
You were not created to live for just a short time. You were not created to exist and then pass away. God created you to live forever.
That is why, when He explained His personal investment strategy to His disciples, He advised them,
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. – Matthew 6:19-21
God wants to work with you to provide you with lasting health, lasting wealth, and lasting life. God wants to invest in you in ways that will provide permanent, eternal returns. God is not in it just for the short term. God’s perspective is eternity. God’s will for you is to continue providing His blessings in ever increasing abundance for the rest of your life, which is the rest of eternity.
When we die, we rise.
Perhaps the single greatest witness of Jesus’ life, was His death. It wasn’t a matter of opinion. It wasn’t a theological argument or a healing miracle like He had done during His life. It wasn’t just a conflict between men and God over religion and government and the matters of this life. It wasn’t a philosophical point of contention over the nature of His kingdom, whether it was of this world or not. At the end of the day, everyone observing the execution was sure of one thing, Jesus Christ was finished. His followers fled to their own homes and returned to their lives as best they could. The leadership and those who had worked so hard to kill him, had some remaining worries about what might happen if stories started circulating that might make His influence after His death greater than it had been before. But no one doubted the fact that Jesus was dead.
Jesus’ death was His final testimony to who He actually is. It was the living witness of His power and identity. Because on that third day following His death, the lifeless, bloodied, and pierced body of Christ rose under His own power, walked out of the tomb, and ascended to heaven — showing us the way.
This was not just a man. Jesus Christ rose because He is the one true God and eternal life.
When we embrace Jesus Christ as our one and only God, when we choose to walk in His footsteps and embrace His will for our lives, when we first obey His commands and so become His friends. Then when our lifeless bodies are laid to rest in the tomb, we too will rise under His power, walk out of our tombs, and ascend to live forever in heaven just like He showed us we could.
We do not worship a God of the dead, but of the living. You were created to live forever — its just a matter of you wanting to.
Kathy Simons
I love the truth that “God is a persistent giver.” I am awed by the limitless gifts in store for us if we only ask and use them in our lives. This is a beautiful reminder that God can help us overcome any of the limits we feel in our lives. What a freeing thought!