Restarting Everything

Excerpt from Reframe by Brian Harden

Would it shock you to find out you inspired God? What kind of weight would this idea bring to your life?

You inspire God.

That would shift a paradigm or two, wouldn’t it?

It would probably make you think a little longer about living recklessly or, for that matter, not living at all.

If the definition of inspiration is something “that makes someone want to do or create something,” then we must inspire God because life is still being created and given as a gift—seven beautiful screaming new lives per second, to be exact. But to inspire is more than that.

To inspire also means “the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions.” The entire narrative of the Bible reveals a God who is eager and willing to be with us.

In the Old Testament, God was constantly moved to act and respond. The Scriptures are full of stories in which He describes the way our actions affect Him. And then, in the most profound action the world has ever seen, God came in person. Jesus came. If people don’t inspire God, then why would He come for us? Why would He care? Why would He want to be with us?

We inspire God.

This final reframe should touch just about everything in our lives, leaving them humbled and tingling with possibility. As I’ve said so many times before, this really is all about you, and all about what you do next.

My friend, you were created and fashioned after God’s image. Do you understand how profoundly you matter?

Do you understand how profoundly that matters?

If God’s image is embedded in you at your spiritual core and God gave you the breath of life (Genesis 2:7), then He is more deeply invested in you than every single one of the cells that give you form and shape.

“Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

You cannot escape God. And He will not abandon you.

“No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”

1 John‬ ‭4:12-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”