SCRIPTURE: Acts 17:26-28 MSG Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him!
THOUGHT: Even though I’m writing on this passage from The Message, I love the way it reads in the NIV too: From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’
Paul’s third strategy is capturing God’s nature and purposes in a few shining sentences: God is intelligent, with a plan for bringing order out of chaos; God is creative in his ordering; God is relational, hoping humans will seek him out; God can be found anywhere, superseding time and boundaries.
Do you have a few short sentences of your own ready when you get a chance to explain your faith? Peter once offered this advice: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15 NIV).
PRAYER: Today, Lord, I find myself grateful again for your intelligent ordering, creativity, desire for relationship and nearness. And I am grateful to Paul and Peter for their wise words – words of Spirit, powerful enough to pierce to the marrow.
Amy released a full-length book in early 2021, Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. Maybe you’d like to check it out here.
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