If You Feel Insignificant

A man stepped on the subway and glanced around. Faces. A line of unresponsive, uninterested, expressionless faces. He saw a seat on the opposite side and sat down. The mural of faces across from hi stared fixedly at points just above his head, at his feet, or drearily and unfocused into this distance. The train lurched forward.

He became aware that one of the faces reflected in the opposite window wa his own. A moment of panic struck him. His was just another face in this nameless mass of humanity. Who was he? Would anyone notice if his face were erased from the painting? Did he have any significance?

Can you identify with these feelings? It can be anywhere--in the crowded city or the barren countryside--that this question jars you from the hypnotic flow of life. Suddenly you step back and wonder, "Am I significant?"

Some people try to avoid this question, hoping the uneasy gnawing of insecurity will somehow go away. They simply jump back into the rat race, unable to bear the inner emptiness that comes with contemplation.

Others attempt to answer the question in various ways. It seems popular today, for example, to try to find out who we are by turning inward. What are my talents? How can I reach my full potential?

The problems with using ourselves as a base for answering questions about our significance should be obvious.

First, I a only a little part of all that is. Hoe can I answer questions that involve so much I do not know?

Further, if everyone because his own base for understanding life, each person may form a different conclusion. You have your answers. I have mine. In a way we are rather gratified to be our own authority, until ee consider what that means--five billion "authorities" results in chaos, not sense.

Wouldn't it be nice to have someone who knew everything, who understood all about life . . . and death . . . and people? Such a person could give us the answers to who we are, why we are here, and what is our significance.

The God of the Bible is just such a Person. In Psalm 139 we read about Him. He knows everything about us. He is present everywhere we go.

When we come to know this God, we learn that cur significance is not in what we are in ourselves, but in who we are in relationship to Him.

1. God is our Creator. "Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3).

2. God made man in His own image. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:2?). Being created in the image of God makes you distinct from the animals. You are created with the ability to reason, choose, and feel emotions. You have a soul that will never die.

If these things are true, why do so few people experience fulfillment? why is life such a meaningless cycle for so many people?

In Isaiah 59: 1, 2 we learn that our sins have separated us from God . We were created sinless in God's image, but we have fallen. Our sinfulness makes relationship with God impossible. He is holy. He will not overlook sin.

So what hope is there?

3. We can have a restored relationship with God through His Son Jesus.

The solution to our sin problem rests in another of God's characteristics. "God is love" (I John 4:16). Because of His love, God gave His Son Jesus Christ to redeem us from sin so that we can enjoy a restored relationship with him (John 3:16).

God gave us the ability to choose. We can continue to believe Satan s lies that we are our own Gods, that we can make our own reality, that we can find significance in ourselves. Or we can trust the truth that sets us free-- we are God's creation, made in His image, fallen in sin, but able to be set free from sin through the sacrifice of Jesus.

4. Restored through Jesus, we become God's children.

The person who believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour becomes a new creation: a saint, a joint-heir with Christ, a member of a chosen people who will spend eternity with God.

Talk about significance in life!

Wouldn't you like to know the purpose in life that comes from being God's child?

IF YOU WANT A NEW LIFE

The provisions:

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten SON" (John 3:16).

"He that hath the SON hath LIFE; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12).

"He that spared not his own SON, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us ALLTHINGS" (Romans 8:32)?

The conditions:

"He that BELIEVETH on the Son hath everlasting life:and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).

"He that HEARETH MY WORD, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24).

"If any man will come after me, let him DENY HIMSELF, and TAKE UP HIS CROSS DAILY, and FOLLOW ME" (Luke 9:23).

Receiving Christ:

To receive Christ, God's Son, as your Lord and Saviour, renounce yourself and your own ways, believe in Jesus as your personal Saviour, and begin to follow Him. You will want to join a group of fellow believers--a group that believes and practices what the Bible says.

"The freedom Jesus gives is not the right to do as we please, but the power to do as we ought."

You may request printed copies of this tract from Christian Light Publications.

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