We live in a world where the pressures around cause us to feel that we “just need so much”. We need to have whiter teeth so that the evening will go well – along with the “splashing chewing gum”, we need the new vehicle that auto-parks, the Swiffer that makes cleaning easier, the job which produces a six figure salary, and the list goes on. It is no wonder that people are insecure and that they feel pressured to seek out affirmation and honor from others. All these things that we feel will make us important, significant, people of worth, have more honor, etc. are like gods to us. We feel that we need them and are in subtle and bold ways pressured to try to get them. These things and the thoughts of getting them, or wanting them, end up controlling our lives and our emotions. Think of the times when your emotions went amiss because “you didn’t get ….”, or “….. didn’t work out”, (fill in the dots for something you wanted of thought you needed). It was in this type of culture, where the people were controlled by hundreds of gods, that Paul speaks in Acts 17. Paul presents the key to victory over so many things controlling us, these things which act like gods upon us. The key is found in verse 28 where Paul talks about the great creator God, the Lord Jesus Christ, “for in Him we live and move and have our being, …. ‘For we are also His offspring.’” When we start to actually live and move and have our being in the Lord Jesus, Who created us, then we are free from these other pressures, expectations, needs for affirmation, these gods which seem to influence us so much.
Lord may we always see and experience that our life, our being and our essence of strength comes from You. May we so richly experience You on a regular basis, that indeed we would say that I live in You Lord Jesus.
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