The Purpose of Life

 Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today

July 10, 2025

The Purpose of Life

“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart,

all your soul, and all your mind.’

This is the first and greatest commandment.

Matthew 22:37-38 

Psalm 2 provides context for Jesus’ imperative. First, some background. Nations rebelled against God’s Sovereignty. But God, out of the abundance of His mercy, sent His only begotten Son, the Messiah, as the way of restoration and harmony with God. Our appropriate response to God’s Messiah is subordination to and worship of God. However, devoting our life to God has always been risky because the ways of God conflict with the ways of the world. Psalm 2 addresses a heavenly view of all history as well as the future beyond the horizon.

In Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested. Immediately after their release from jail, they rejoined the other believers, and they all prayed together. (See Acts 4:23-31) They began their prayer by quoting Psalm 2:1-2, “…The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah” (Acts 4:26). Their prayer reveals they were encountering vicious resistance to their witness for Jesus, and so they prayed, “. . . give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

Today, the followers of Christ are a minority in the world and in the USA. Today, there is much resistance, including violence, to the witness for Jesus Christ in our culture. Today, we need to follow the example of the forbearers of our faith in Jerusalem two thousand years ago and pray for courage to boldly proclaim the Word of the Lord. I believe, with every fiber of my being, that when believers come together to pray, we will share in this experience of our ancestors in the cause of Christ: “After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

My Takeaway: Our forbearers in Christ, acted on Jesus’ imperative to love God with our whole heart, soul and mind. Oh Lord, may we be empowered for your work today, as we trust in the sufficiency of your grace for today!

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.