John 8:32 KJV "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
I used to view abundant life as something most of us are still waiting to realize--having a lot of money, good health, flourishing relationships, a nice home, nice cars, a vacation every once in a while and the admiration and acceptance of our peers, just to name a few.
God showed me a long time ago that abundant life has nothing to do with "stuff", and everything to do with Him. Life on this side of Heaven will never be perfect. Now I realize that abundant life begins when we really, really, really believe that God is good, that every good gift is a blessing to be enjoyed with gratitude and faithfulness, and every difficulty is something that a good God allows for a good reason--to change us ever-more into the image of His Son.
Abundant life has everything to do with freedom, freedom in Christ. Freedom in Christ happens when He opens our eyes to see the truth, in concepts both large and small.
With the truth that He loves us as we are and paid an unimaginable price to redeem us to Himself forever (Thank You, Lord!), God set me free from the bondage of competetiveness and the need to prove my worth and value by being good and doing the right things.
With the truth that He loves us perfectly and that He works everything together for good, He set me free from the prison of fear.
He set me free from the chains of criticism with the truth that a spirit of criticism never comes from Him and only serves to steal joy, distort truth and harm relationships.
He set me free from covetousness, dissatisfaction and depression when He filled my heart with overwhelming gratitude and gave me eyes to see the truth of His constant beautiful presence in all of life.
He set me free from weariness with the truth that His joy is my strength, and because His joy is infinite, the strength He gives me is also infinite. He also showed me how to plug in to that powerful source anytime or anywhere, and the way is, for me, through music.
He set me free from unrighteous anger and frustration with the truth that the situations that tend to produce those emotions in my heart are situations that God uses to teach me and draw me nearer to Himself.
He set me free from the burden of judging others with the truth that judgment is His job, not mine, and that my job and my delight is simply to love God and love people.
By enabling me to enjoy each experience in each moment of every day for its own worth, He freed me from the bondage of frequently wanting to be somewhere else, doing something else. When I'm at work, I love being at work. When I'm at home, I love being at home. When I'm engaged in a conflict of some sort, I love it, because it teaches me how to depend on God's presence for wisdom and peace and guidance.
He set me free from pride when He showed me that anything good in me comes from Him alone, and how desperately I need and depend on Him every moment of every day.
This really is the abundant life. I don't take any credit for it whatsoever. My heart overflows with gratitude for this unending Source of life, joy, peace and contentment, and cries out to God to reveal Himself to every living being, according to His perfect will.
2 comments:
I was mesmorised by your post. Your erudition and wisdom leaves me speechless!
There is one point I need clarification. Remember the story about the master who gave talents to three workers. He got very upset with the man who didn't use it.
If you don't use your God given talents to advance yourself, you are answerable to God on the Judgement Day.
May God give you peace and happiness at all times!
Thank you for the words of encouragement, Joseph! It is very important to me to be as faithful as possible with everything God has trusted me with -- time, money, resources, relationships, gifts, talents, etc. But I also realize that the very desire to be faithful comes from Him, and that as I seek to know Him more intimately, He works out the details of what that faithfulness actually looks like.
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