How do people live without God?
I recently encountered this on two very different levels.
My husband and I were asked to minister to a family going through a crisis. When we arrived, it was quickly apparent that most of these were (for a lack of better words) empty.
They had no desire for God and therefore the very air around them was discouraging. Without knowing any details of their lives at all, we were able to discern the sheer emptiness of their lives without God.
They lived from paycheck to paycheck, from one beer to the next, one fight to the next, one disillusionment to the next. And repeated it day after day, year after year, generation after generation.
Ironically, later that day, we were at home winding down for the evening and caught a real estate show on television about the super-rich. As we watched the negotiation of millions of dollars for these high-class, extremely private, individuals and their world of penthouses and caviar, we were left with the same revelation as the earlier group.
Godless emptiness.
These individuals had the ability to buy whatever they wanted, but nothing satisfied. They lived from one purchase to the next, one trip to the next, one negotiation to the next, with the same results, only on a different level.
I think that’s what Paul meant when he said, “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Ephesians 4:17-19).
Futility describes something (or someone) incapable of producing any results. This is the life of those without God:
- They lack understanding. Both groups, rich and poor, had zero understanding of God and His desire to save them.
- They are alienated from real life. It really didn’t matter how much or how little stuff they had. Without God, life, real life, is foreign to them. They have no idea what they’re missing.
- They live in sheer ignorance. Satan’s greatest weapon against any of us is a lack of knowledge. If he can keep us blind, he can keep us separated from Truth.
- They eventually lose all ability to feel. In other words, nothing pricks their heart anymore. There’s no consciousness of moral right or wrong.
This is how we all were before Christ filled our heart with His life and His truth and it’s no way to live.
People don’t live without God. They live without existence.
I pray that those of us who have discovered life in Christ will live in such a way that those without it will want what they are missing: real life.
“My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day, for I do not know their limits” (Psalm 71:15).
