Listen

You, God, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, and my foot from stumbling, so I’ll walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 116:8-9

Think

“The land of the living” is a phrase written throughout the Hebrew Bible to describe this world – the place where we live. In the Psalms, it’s most often used in relation to seeing God at work and to being in communion with God, connected to the one who made us. Heaven on earth, God’s kingdom come: the land of the living.

Heaven isn’t just a far-off place where we’ll experience God’s presence after we die. Heaven can be among us right now! In fact, God saved the Psalmist from death so that the Psalmist could experience God’s presence now!

When we pledge that we will see God in this world, we are proclaiming that our job as people of faith is not to sit idly by, waiting until the next life to experience God’s presence. Our job as Christians is to see God at work in the world here and now and to join in that work. I will walk with the Lord here – in the land of the living.

Allie Scott

Pray

Morning by morning new mercies I see. God, you are indeed with us. Make your presence known to me, and let me walk with you now and always. Amen.

Go

I’m here, God. Send Me.

from Isaiah 6:8