Created in the Image of God
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
God created the first man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him. People are the only living beings created in God’s image. We are triune beings, consisting of body, soul, and spirit. Our spirits are our connection to God, enabling us to commune with and worship him. Our souls are our personality, and our bodies are our earthly flesh. Our spirits and souls live forever, and our flesh returns to earth. God created humanity in his image, enabling us to enjoy fellowship with him for all eternity. We are created for God’s pleasure; he doesn’t need us, but he loves us perfectly and he wants to share is love and his life with us forever.
In their book, God Attachment, Clinton and Straub say, “Empirical evidence is now showing that we may be born with a desire for a relationship with a ‘Transcendent Other’ and that longing begins to reveal itself as young as three years of age.”1 God created us to have a relationship with him and to worship him with our lives. Adam walked in the garden with the Lord and had a relationship with God until he committed the first sin. “God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” (Genesis 3:3) Adam ate of the fruit and died a spiritual death; his sin separated him from God. God created us with free will, because without free will, how can love exist? Love is a choice, and God wants his people to choose to know him and to love him.
God created the first people without sin, which we learn when we read that Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden. We were created to walk with the Lord in a perfect sinless world. Unfortunately we live in sinful world due to man’s sinful nature inherited from Adam. However, God has rescued us so we are able to live in his image, reaping divine love, peace, and joy. Those who accept Christ as there Savior are filled with the Holy Spirit and can live as beings created in God’s image. God’s design for us is to live as one with him through the Holy Spirit in this life and for eternity in the heavenly life. Christ promises us that we can live this worldly life to the full. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT) God set eternity into people’s hearts. It is impossible for temporal things to fulfill the human soul. Only the eternal God can fulfill the eternal soul. When people live in the Holy Spirit knowing they have eternal life, they are complete and can live life to the full.
Today know you are created in the image of God, to live Christ-like with the mind of Christ is exactly how you are designed to live. We are fulfilled and complete, only when we live the way we are created, in the image of God to be with God. You are created to be one with God forever, so today be with God by communing with him, praising his name, thanking him, and asking him for guidance and help when needed.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for creating me in your image. Help me to live life to the fullest, the way I was created to live, with the mind of Christ. Mold me everyday helping to live the way you created me. In Jesus name, Amen