What is Man that God is Mindful of Him?

Psalm 144:3-4 “LORD, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.”

What is it that God desires from us?  We cannot do anything for God.  He has all He needs and the ability to create whatever He chooses.  We are like a breath, formed from the dust and to dust we return.  We are here and gone with little, if anything, to remind others of our time here. .  Yet…

When God created us, He made us in His image. Genesis 1:27  “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”  Praise God for His creativity and His willingness to allow us to be image-bearers.  It is a great privilege that we often don’t recognize.  Pray that our sons and daughters recognize that and are awed by God’s design.

What are “mere mortals that you think of them?”  Yet, God did think of us, long before we were born.  Romans 8:29: "Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;”.  He knew who would bow to His Lordship.  He knew who would embrace the cross.  He made a way for us to be reconciled to Him despite the death and separation that sin brought.  He thought of us, and made a way and in that way we would be conformed to His likeness.  Pray that our sons and daughters would understand God’s great love and His plan of redemption.  Pray that they would realize that long before the world began, God thought of them and was preparing a way.

“They are like a breath, their days are like a fleeting shadow”   James 4:14 “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”  So what are we doing with our lives?  While we are here, our task is to live like Jesus.  And if we are believers in Jesus, we are being transformed into His likeness by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  Pray that our sons and daughters are sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit and that they are obedient to His prompting and leading in their lives- making them more and more like Jesus.

I John 1:1-3 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

One day we will see Jesus and stand in His presence and all of our purpose, all of our being will be brought into clarity.  God’s design is that our brief life here is just a shadow of what will come.  We will transition to an eternity in His presence, if we align our hearts with Him.  And when we do, we receive the most amazing reward.  

So when the Psalmist asks, “What are human beings that You care for them?”  We can answer with assurance that we are His image-bearers, His children on whom He lavishes great love.  We are those He knew long before He created the world and we are His heirs for whom He’s created an eternal home for us to live in His presence.

Pray that our sons and daughters realize their worth.  Pray that they understand that there is so much more to our eternal souls than what we experience in this short, temporal earthly life.  Pray that they will have an eternal perspective and will live in such a way that they reflect Jesus to those around them.  Though this life is a breath and will fade, one day we will wake and find ourselves in eternity, our bodies whole, our minds sound and our souls filled with inexpressible joy and hope because we’ll be standing right where God intended us to, by His side in eternity.  His heirs, His children, His image-bearers by His side and we’ll all be able to say “You look just like your Father!”

Pray without ceasing, friends.  God is working.