Live and Move With God in the New Year

Are you ready to live and move with God?

The last few years have been unstable to say the least.

We endured hardships and loss.

But as God’s people, we trust Him with the new year.

And this means we live and move with Him.

So whatever comes our way in 2022, I pray we remember:

In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28b ESV, emphasis added).

(1)  Live in God.

In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul visits Athens. Teaching in the synagogue, he describes the city as full of idol worship. He “found an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god’” (Verse 23 ESV).

Next, Paul proclaims the known God in verses 24-25.

• God made the world, heavens, and everything in it.
• He does not dwell in temples made by man.
• The Lord is not served by human hands as needing what we have to offer Him.
• God gives life, breath, and everything.

Live means to reside in, have one’s home in, set up residence, be settled in; be housed in, lodge in; inhabit, occupy.

Reflections on Living: 

1. Are we letting those in the community where we live see our faith in a known God? How our life resides in the living God who gives us everything?
2. Do we show others how we inhabit a spiritual life in the promise of heaven? Do we live in such a way others see the known God in us, see us as His temple and God’s altar?

(2)  Move with God.

Here’s what Paul says about all mankind in verses 26-27:

• God determines our allotted periods/times in history, boundaries, and dwelling places.
• The Lord chose appointed times for us to seek Him, make our way toward Him, and find Him. Because God is not far off, but near.

Move means to go in a specified direction or manner; change position; proceed, progress, advance. And change or cause to change from one state, opinion, sphere, or activity to another; shift one’s ground, change one’s tune, change one’s mind.

Reflections on Moving: 

1. Do we change addresses, jobs, churches, and so on, only after seeking God?
2. Do we move forward in progress in our spiritual life? Are we advancing the gospel, helping move God’s Kingdom to this earth and our life?
3. What about moving toward God to really know Him?
4. Are we “shifting ground” from this world’s opinions and philosophies to holy ground? The holy ground where the altar has an inscription, “To the known God of heaven.”

(3)  Being in God.

Paul closes the chapter with verses 29-34.

• We are God’s offspring.
• The Lord is a divine being and not like idols of gold or silver or stone by the imagination of man.
• God overlooked times of ignorance to idols, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.
• He set a day to judge righteousness by the appointed man He raised from the dead—Jesus. When Paul mentions the resurrection, some mocked, others said, “we will hear you about this again” (verse 32). Still, others believed and joined Paul as a follower of Christ.

Being is the present participle of be. It means existence; the nature or essence of a person; soul, spirit, inner being, inner self.

Reflections on Being.

1. Are we aware and remind ourselves how our mere existence is because of God? How He created each of us, body, soul, and spirit; and we are wonderfully made?
2. Do we really understand our complete essence, who we are, lies in God alone? How our inner self is defined by our Creator?

What better way for God’s people to focus in the new year than this:

In God, we live and move and have our being.

In what ways can you live and move with God? How about find your being in Him?

Definitions of live, move, and being are summaries found online from Google, Merriam-Webster, and the Oxford Dictionary.

Also see: Rescued Misfits: Our Life After Christmas.

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Featured photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash/Top photo by Ryan Holloway on Unsplash/Middle photo by Leon Biss on Unsplash/Bottom photo by Jurica Koletić on Unsplash.