Isaiah 45:1 and 45:13 teaches that God's will was to raise up Cyrus to rebuild His city, Jerusalem so that men would acknowledge there is no God besides the Lord of Israel (v. 6). This action was for the benefit of Israel (v. 4) and the nations (NIV CBC, p. 371). Truly, there is no God like ours (46:9). There is no one else who can tell the end from the beginning and whose purposes stand the test of time (46:10). Every new day, God is weaving yet another beautiful strand into His grand narrative using our lives, our nation, and our world. When we look back one day, we will look back with awestruck wonder. Fortunately, for us, we have been given the Bible, and God has already revealed some things that will happen in the end times. We should not however focus on the end times more than the Lord himself. God raised up Cyrus in his lifetime to do what God had planned for Cyrus. The question you should ask yourself is "what is God raising me up to do?"
Yesterday, I wrote about how Paul and his boys (a group of God-fearing men) lived it (see entry). Now in I Thessalonians 3:8, Paul says, "we really live." One of Paul's boys was Timothy and Paul had sent Timothy to the church of Thessanolica to encourage the church in their trials (v. 2-3). Because the church of Thessanolica was also living it (the Christian life), Paul could say "we really live." This church was "standing firm" (v. 8) in their faith and this made Paul extremely happy. In your trials, are you standing firm or is your faith wavering? Maybe you need an encourager like Timothy to come into your life? Or maybe you just need to recommit yourself to the Lord's ways? When "we live it", "we really live!"
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