EXPERIENCING ABUNDANT LIFE
Have you struggled in your Christian life, waiting to
experience a deeper relationship with Christ, knowing there must be more than
spending a lifetime on earth longing for eternity? Do you sometimes feel like
the king’s daughter you just read about -- excited to have a Dad, but not
really seeing much of a difference He makes in your life on a daily basis? It
doesn’t have to be that way.
You see, while we ARE to long for our heavenly home
and consider ourselves citizens of heaven who are simply visiting on earth as
ambassadors for Christ (Phil. 3:20, 2 Cor. 5:20), we can live a life
filled with joy while we are here. In John 15:9-11, Jesus explained very
specifically how to experience this joy:
“ Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved
you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love;
just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. These
things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may
be made full.”
You see, the key to having our joy “made full” is to
abide in Christ ... and the secret to abiding in Christ is to keep His
commandments. In other words, as we walk in obedience to Jesus, we will abide
in His love -- we will dwell there. It is through this relationship of abiding
in Him that we can experience full joy. Earlier in John 15, Jesus explains the
importance of abiding in Him -- so that we may bear fruit to glorify God -- and
tells us that bearing fruit is impossible apart from abiding in Him (see John
15:1-8).
These two ingredients added to our life -- abiding in
Christ through obedience, and glorifying God with our fruit -- will work to
bring joy into our lives. But when we obey God something else wonderful
happens. You see, Jesus also said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep
My commandments.” Let’s plug that definition into one of the most beautiful
promises in the Word of God: Romans 8:28 -- “And we know that God causes all
things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose.” “Those who
love God” are those who obey Him!
So in God’s wonderful, perfect plan, as we obey Him,
we find ourselves abiding in Him, dwelling in His love -- His perfect,
all-encompassing love which casts out all fear (1 John 4:18) -- and producing
fruit to glorify God. Along with this we can then claim the beautiful promise
that God will cause ALL THINGS to work together for good to us. What joy this
should evoke in us!
Please don’t think I’m saying everything will be
perfectly easy and there will never be difficulties. Thousands of Christian
martyrs throughout the ages can testify otherwise. But when you put all of the
ingredients together -- our obedience, the resulting benefit of dwelling in
Christ’s love, the fruit we will produce, and the good God will bring out of
all things in our lives -- we can have joy. Joy in knowing that our names are
written in the Lamb’s book of life, that we are His. Joy in bringing glory to
our Father. Joy at the promise of heaven and the treasures we are building up
there. And joy because we have something nobody can ever take away: abundant
life. John 10:10 records that Jesus said, “I came that they might have life,
and might have it abundantly.” Interestingly, the Greek word used here for “life”
is not the life we live in our flesh (bios). It is instead zoe,
and it means the life of the spirit or soul.
If you are hurting right now, suffering through
difficult times or dealing with difficult people, please grasp this with
everything you have: Nobody but you can limit the depths and riches of your
abundant life of the spirit or soul with Christ. Whatever control another
person may be exerting over you, he or she can’t limit your private prayers,
because your relationship with God is personal -- nobody has to know what you
say and do during your quiet times. You have been given the opportunity to
experience an ABUNDANT life in your spirit or soul -- just like Paul and Silas
did when they were singing in their prison cells, just like the early disciples
did when they were persecuted for the sake of Christ, just like countless
physically-imprisoned people have done despite the limitations of their fleshly
(bios) bodies. You have that same ability to experience abundant life in
your spirit that nothing on this earth or in your flesh can touch!
So plug these foundational truths into your
circumstances. Watch God honor your obedience and your fruit by working all
things together for good in your life. Rejoice over your salvation, your
abundant zoe life in the soul, the answered prayers you are seeing, the
glory God is receiving, your treasures in heaven. I can’t promise you a perfect
life. But I can promise this: If you follow Jesus’ plan for having your joy
made full, NOBODY can steal your joy or cause you to have anything but abundant
life.
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