Life
I have lived wishing to live and I have lived wishing to die. Was I really living when I wanted to die?
Humans cannot change the meaning of life. They can represent (or misrepresent) what life is meant to be.
You may be dead and not even realize it. What is life? Life can be defined by what life is not. Life has no point if it is completely full of negative emotion and the will to live will never return. Therefore life can be defined by the absence of any negative emotion.
Death is the direct opposite of life. It can be defined by the complete absence of positive emotion.
You of yourself cannot free yourself from negative emotion (death), otherwise you already would have. If you cannot, your life has no meaning unless Someone Exists Who has provided and is willing for you to receive life (complete positive emotion).
Definition of Life: complete happiness, peace and satisfaction.
Romans 6: 23
For the wages (ultimate outcome) of sin (misrepresenting God) is death (ultimately leads to complete negative emotion), but the gift of God is eternal life (complete positive emotion) in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You misrepresent God when you hurt yourself and others of you. God has never nor will ever hurt you and others of you. Sometimes you are not aware you are hurting yourself and others of you (misrepresenting God).
You can hurt yourself without physically hurting yourself.
Misrepresenting God in your heart will hurt you more than just about anything else will hurt you. It is more dangerous than smoking, doing drugs, excessive drinking, obesity, lack of exercise, as it is often the cause of these behaviours. It leads to relationship breakdown, bankruptcy, waste, emotional and psychological damage, and physical damage to the brain.
God cannot misrepresent Himself, otherwise He would not be Who He Is. Numbers 23:19 God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
If you want life, you can allow God to be correctly represented through your actions, words, desires etc. Its a bit hard to represent Someone you do not know, so you first need to understand Who He IS.
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (misrepresent God); I (Jesus Christ) have come that they may have life (represent God), and have it to the full (completely represent God).
It can be a bit hard to want to get to know Someone if you have thought they do not want you.
Jonah 2:8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
So one of the ways to help you live life is to help you know the truth about God.
John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
God is the Truth , when you know God you know the truth. God wants you to know Him, even as His Son Jesus Christ knows Him.
John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
God wants you to live the best possible life you can live, otherwise He would not be Who He IS.
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Deuteronomy 30:20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Isaiah 55:3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
John 5:25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
John 6:57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
John 6:58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die
John 11:26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 14:19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
Romans 1:17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
1 John 2:17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 4:9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.