The Nature of Life

But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your Name.

❧ Ps 80:17-18

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The bar for answered prayer here seems a bit too low. Give us life, and we'll call on God's Name. The promise couldn't have been made by one who was dead, so...

But, anyway, what I think my response to this prayer should be is to think about the nature of life itself. There is biological life, and then there is a life which is appreciated as a gift from God, a life lived for God. Such a life necessarily calls on the Name of God even as it is shaped by the hand of God. For Jesus' said,

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

❧ John 10:10

All our striving, all our ambition, all our longing and lust are nothing more—and nothing less!—than a desire for the fulfillment of the promise of Christ: abundant life.

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I am alive, Lord. I breathe and move and think. And so I thank you for life. But I desire life that is lived in the knowledge of your Name—a life lived to glorify you and in service to my neighbors. Give me such a life that I may call on you, for this is not just life, but life abundant! In Jesus' Name who taught me to pray: Our Father...