“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ Matthew 6:9-13
Two songs have been mingling together in my spirit to remind me who I belong to and what His desire for me is. The more I love and worship Him, the more my vision lines up with His plan and His ways.
The song called “Great are You Lord” has a few lines that say, “It’s Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise…So we pour out our praise to You only.”
Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” This beautiful account of man’s beginning shouldn’t be a distant account never to be applied to our own lives. When God created Adam, father of humanity, is really no different than when He knit us together in our mother’s wombs. God was intentional over His first human, and He was intentional while creating us. God breathed into Adam with love, and so He does to us.
The song lyrics reminded me of this verse and both struck me how much I belong to God. Every breath I breathe, the very breathe that glorifies God by sounding like His name, Yahweh, is a gift that comes from Him.
Most people have given children or even careless adults a gift and been saddened by the care they take of it. Maybe the children break the toy. Perhaps the adults don’t value to gift and let it fall to pieces. God has experienced this too.
Every life is a gift from God and act of love. God’s desire is for us to use our gift of life to live in unity with Him, and to share His goodness with others. Sadly, many never grasp that they belong to Him, that they were a work of heart, valued and loved, ready to be welcomed close. God wants the lost to be found, and He wants to fill every moment of our lives with His presence.
The second song replaying in my heart is called “First Things First” by Consumed by Fire. The lyrics should represent the cry of every heart set on Jesus. Too many “Christians” love God in words only. Too many desires are set and met in the world. Too many hopes are hinged on the “good” that happens for them. Too many have both fresh water and saltwater issuing from them. Too many say, Lord come, but don’t want to be His hands and feet.
We need to be a people devoted to a holy God. We need to make His Kingdom come. We need to do what He asks us to do. We need to set our hearts on Him and on nothing else.
“All the things that I have held dear, the vanities that whispered in my ear. What would I do if they all disappeared? Riches and fame and all that they could buy. I’ve come to find they never satisfy. What would I gain if my soul’s the price? I don’t wanna love what the world loves. I don’t wanna chase what the world does. I only want you. I only want you.
First thing’s first, I seek Your will. Not my own. Surrender all my wants to you. Keep the first thing first, to live Your truth, walk Your ways, set my eyes, Lord I fix my face on you. All my desires reversed, to keep the first thing first. I give it all. My life an offering. My heart is yours, so have Your way in me. Your kingdom’s all I wanna seek”
God gives the breath of life. He desires that we seek Him. He wants to share His heart, His eyes with us.