Our children are grown and out of the house, but whenever we have the opportunity to enjoy a meal together, our conversations are spirited. Sometimes the topics include movies, books, storylines and fictional characters. Occasionally, as the conversation unfolds, the thought occurs, “Do they realize these characters are not alive?” It is amazing how creative outlets can captivate our minds, imagination and attention.
As the initial groundwork for considering God, let’s first establish that He is alive. God is not fictional. He is the living God. This may seem elementary, but the difference between alive and dead impacts our response greatly.
God’s word to us, the Bible, tells us God is alive.
The psalmist voiced his response to the living God.
Psalm 84:2
My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Jesus’ disciple, Simon Peter, spoke truth about God to Jesus.
Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Paul, Silas and Timothy rejoiced in the report that the Thessalonians turned to God.
1 Thessalonians 1:9
For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God
God is alive. There are many other attributes and characteristics of God, but our belief that God is living is what requires a response. Yes, we could describe and identify the attributes and character of a dead being. But dead is without life, done, decayed, finished.
Alive responds and interacts. Alive changes everything.
A.W. Tozer said it this way:
“All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with that overwhelming problem of God: That He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him.” [A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (San Francisco: Harper-San Francisco, 1992), 3.]