Alive in Messiah!

A few weeks ago our congregation had a womens' retreat where I had the opportunity to do one of the morning devotionals about the theme, "Alive in Messiah." I felt like the Lord had been little by little putting the message together over the last several years. I will share a little of what the Lord put on my heart to share with the other women.

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1Co 15:22 ESV)

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:4-10 ESV)

What does it mean to be alive? Think about this question for a while.

Have you had times in your life where you said, “I feel alive!?” What were you doing?

Have you experienced times in your life when you felt dead or like you wanted to die? What were you doing?

I am reminded of one person in the Scriptures who went from a major high to major low very quickly. We can read about it in 1 Kings 18-19. Elijah had finished facing off with the prophets of Baal on the top of Mount Carmel where fire came down from heaven and consumed his sacrifice. He slew the prophets of Baal and ran 26 miles to Jezreel where he went into a cave and wanted to die. Why did he go from such a high to such a low? He was a man of God. I believe (this is my own theory) that after this “pinnacle experience” he maybe felt like he had fulfilled what was sent on earth to do. Maybe he thought that there was nothing left for him to do. I think he lost the vision for his purpose.

When we lose sight of our purpose or stop living out our purpose—we feel dead. When we walk out our lives doing what the Lord intended for us, we feel alive.

I will proffer this definition for my question above, “what does it mean to be alive?” I think that being alive means to actively live in the present (not in the past or future) functioning in the way we were designed to function. People have lived in the past and people will live in the future, but they may not be alive right now. Being alive is an active word; it is not passive.