Humans have somehow gotten the idea that God is optional. We have come to think that God is a choice, that we can take him or leave him as we think best. But the universe doesn’t work that way. Everything was formed at the command of God and designed to function as he determined, people included.
As Paul told the leading thinkers of the Greek-Roman world, everyone depends on God for everything, including their next breath. People think God can be picked up or discarded as we choose. If you had the power to make that choice, you would be God! We exist at God’s command, to function how he designed.
God is the ruler all that we see. Our bodies, our hearts, our emotions, our spirits are designed to function best with God’s honor as our greatest good. Attempting to ignore God is like attempting to live without breathing. He is our hope and our rock. Without God, we become lost, confused, frustrated and self-focused. We attempt to live for the moment, but the moments always fade in the mist.
There is but one truth: God alone is our good.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
I desire you more than anything on earth.
My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart;
he is mine forever.
Those who desert him will perish,
for you destroy those who abandon you.
But as for me, how good it is to be near God!
I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter,
and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do. (Psalm 73)