Today, we are investigating God’s heart for all people. No one could make a biblical case that God is a God of death. Alignment with God means aligning with life. We know Jesus has come to give us eternal life. John 3:16 is clear on that and so are over 40 other verses on that topic. There is no eternal life apart from Jesus. No matter what any other religion or philosophy might claim, you only get eternal life in Him. Christ, alone, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, John 14:6.
That said, life with God, alignment with Him, is about more than what happens when you die. God wants to impact our lives, our quality of life, while we are on earth. He wants to satisfy our lives with good things, Psalm 103:5. God doesn’t want you to live aimlessly, purposeless, bound up, angry, dissatisfied or without joy. He wants you to live fulfilled, satisfied, joyful, and at peace and all of that comes from alignment with Him.
God wants us to have abundant life, to enjoy life, as we live here on earth. Proverbs 8:34-36 is a weighty passage on aligning with God when it comes to the subject of life.
Proverbs 8:34-36: 34 Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. What a picture of alignment. Someone who is seeking to hear from God, who is waiting on Him to act and to speak is crouched at the door just waiting for it to open. This person is living in a state of anticipation and readiness to receive something from God. There is an attentiveness to the movement of God because the person here doesn’t want to miss what He has to say. What does the passage go on to say?
35 For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. When you accept Christ as Savior and Lord, you receive life in every possible way. He gives life to your soul. Your sin is lifted off of you. Shame and condemnation are removed from you. Victory over sin and death is given to you. That is incredible! Jesus gives life to your mind. He gives life to the dreams that He places inside of you. He gives life to your relationships. Jesus is life. If you don’t have Jesus, you don’t have real life. You have physical life, but you don’t have real life because real life is eternal life which supersedes your physical experience. When you get Jesus, you find life AND you find favor.
Favor comes as you are positioned in Christ, as you are aligned with Him. What do I mean by favor? Favor with God means I am never alone. Favor with God means that I have the resources of Heaven at my disposal for the challenges of life. Favor with God means I will have favor with people. God will use people to support what He calls me to do. God will direct people to encourage me when I need it. God will bring people into alignment with His Kingdom purposes to partner with our ministry and to help us advance the Kingdom. God will give me words to speak when they are needed. God will be responsive to hear and answer my prayers. God will guard my ways and direct my steps. God will manifest His presence in miraculous ways when I am overwhelmed or overcome. God will elevate me in situations that otherwise would crush me.
Favor is supernatural help, supernatural strength, and supernatural supply to get through life with joy and peace. While sometimes favor includes temporal, financial blessings, it isn’t the focus. God’s favor grants you the things that money can’t buy. Psalm 30:5 says God’s favor lasts for a lifetime! A lifetime! Those who find God find life and favor. The favor lasts for a lifetime, and the life lasts forever. Who doesn’t want to sign up for that?
Now the next verse is pretty sobering. I want you to consider it with great intention and an open heart. 36 But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.”
Those who won’t accept the Lord are harming themselves. How so? They are harming themselves because they are cut off from spiritual life and are cut off from the favor of God which adds quality of life to life on earth. The last part of the verse might be tough to receive. It says, “all who hate me love death.” Again, probably not a conscious choice anyone makes. I don’t know anyone who would say they prefer death over life. I don’t know anyone who thinks promoting or cultivating or celebrating a culture of death is a desired way to live. What I do know, is that they don’t know what they are missing out on by not living life with Jesus. This verse tells us that because Jesus is life and gives life, not choosing Him is choosing a pathway that is the opposite of life.
We see evidence of this happening all around us. There is no way anyone can make a biblical case for abortion. You can’t find Bible verses to support it. There are verses that argue against it. There are theological underpinnings which point to it being against God, who is the “Author of Life.” Abortion is the opposite of life. Anything that is the opposite of life cannot be of God.
Before I go further, let me invite those who disagree with me to hear me out, and let me offer to anyone who has had an abortion this truth, God isn’t done with you. He has life for you, life that comes from forgiveness and life that comes through healing. We have all done things that are the opposite of what God would want us to do. If you have chosen an abortion over giving your child life, that decision doesn’t have to take your life as well. Give God the chance to heal you and set you free. That is what He does. That is Who He is. What we have done, what we do, doesn’t minimize Who God is or what He can and wants to do. God wants you to have an abundant life, not matter what choice you have made.
If I didn’t preach the truth about God’s position on life, I wouldn’t be telling you the truth. I would be withholding information that can be life-giving to people who are suffering the pain from having had an abortion. I have talked to several women who have had an abortion, and they all tell me there is trauma associated with having one. I care just as much about the person who has undergone the trauma of the abortion as I do those being aborted, and so does God, actually infinitely more than I could.
Proverbs 24:11 11 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
Who are those being led away to death? No specific people group is mentioned here so as not to limit or try to quantify which lives are sacred and have value. The understanding here is that an intervention is needed whenever and wherever life is being threatened. It doesn’t matter what a person’s race might be, what their socio-economic status might be, what their age might be or where they live whether inside the womb, on the street, in their own home or in a nursing home. Whoever, wherever and whatever their circumstance, if they are being led to death, if they are being discarded, if their life is being threatened or diminished by abuse, neglect or violence, if they aren’t deemed worthy to live, God says, “Intervene.”
The next verse is Proverbs 24:12 12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?
He also says that we can’t claim ignorance. We cannot turn a blind eye. Believers, we must stand for life, speak life and support life as a way of life for a lifetime! Too many believers are anti-abortion, but aren’t really pro-life. If you are truly pro-life it will be seen in the ways you speak for and support life in the lives of those around you and it will be the evidence that you are properly aligned with Jesus.
