Most people will go to extraordinary lengths to save their own lives. If they are ill, some people will put their families into heavy debt for costly surgery or treatments to buy themselves a few more months of life. Still others will lie and allow the innocent to be condemned in order to save themselves.
Why do we cling so tightly to life? Is it because we fear what lies beyond? As King Solomon wrote, “Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of an animal goes down into the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:21 NIV)
Do we cling to life so tenaciously because we cannot imagine that there is anything more valuable or worthwhile? Yet, for most of us, this life is not entirely satisfying. We do long for something better.
Is there something better than life? Is there something for which we would exchange it? David answered these questions with the words, “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.” (Psalm 63:3 NIV) David sang these words to God. He was convinced that loving God and being loved by God was far more important than life. Or, to put it another way, being in God’s love is life!
At the time David sang these words, his life was not easy. In another part of the same Psalm he says that he was, “…in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1 NIV) The reason David was hiding in the wilderness was that King Saul was trying to kill him. Naturally, David wished to live, but remaining alive was not the most important thing to him. Being in God’s love was.
David could have changed his circumstances. On more than one occasion he could have killed King Saul and taken the throne for himself. Yet, he refused to do so. He would not lift his hand against the person God had anointed as king. Killing Saul would have displeased God. David endured hardship rather doing something which would have damaged his relationship of love with God. David knew that God’s love is better than life.
When we know the Giver of Life and live in His love as David did, then we will not have to worry, as Solomon did, about what will happen to us after this life. We will no longer cling to our life regardless of how difficult or painful it becomes.
Living in a way that pleases God is not always easy. It will bring us ridicule and trouble. We may have to give up our life in order to serve God. Yet, because he knew that God’s love is better than life, the Apostle Paul could write, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17 NIV)
Are you still clinging to your life or has being in God’s love become your priority?