I Rest in Christ, Part 10: Abundant Life
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that [my people] may have life and have it to the full.
Jeremiah 29:11-14a For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, ….
John 8:29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
John 5:30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
Philippians 2:5-8 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
1Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.in it man
Matthew 20:26b-28 Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Luke 12:15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
If we compare the first verse in this list and the last, we seem to find a contradiction: In the one appears to be an assertion that Jesus promises a full (abundant in some translations) life, and the other appears to argue against abundance. The answer lays in the discovery of what is meant by fullness (or abundance). Does it refer to wealth? Luke 12:15 says that abundance does not lie in having possessions. If it were true that abundance lies in having possessions, then one could argue that American 21st century society is the most abundant society that has ever existed. Yet many would also argue that our society is the darkest it has ever been.
The answer to this dichotomy lies in the content of the verses in between. Merriam-Webster defines abundance as an ample quantity of something, or a relative degree of plentifulness. The question is, “What is it that is plentiful?”
Jesus is the climax of God’s story of redemption, but he certainly is not what the people of the day expected. Jesus is the fulfillment of all God’s promises to his people, but he was from the margins of Jewish society. He manifested God’s power through miracles and powerful teaching but didn’t evict the Romans. Yet He changed the world. The Jews expected military revolution; what they got was social revolution. The story of how he did that is far beyond the scope of this post, but we can talk about one small part of it. Jewish life of the day was mostly hard-scraping; most people struggled in their daily existence, and most eagerly sought the long-anticipated arrival of Messiah.
But Jesus came with an unanticipated message: One of love, acceptance, and forgiveness. Part of that message was a change of attitude. People were used to doing what had to be done to get by, but Jesus brought a message involving love and care of others. Basically, he was teaching a change of attitude was needed. This is where the life of abundance comes into the story. Jesus taught that one ought to live one’s life imitating God. Jesus himself said that about his own life, that he didn’t do anything that he didn’t first see his Father doing. Jesus is the Son of God and before his corporeal existence he enjoyed all the attributes of the Godhead among which were omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Through him all of the universe was created, yet he humbled himself and took on the form of a servant (Phil. 2:5-8). His life was the height of abundance.
The abundant life is not the things that happen to a person, but how that person reacts to them. Remember, Satan is committed to our failure, so the bigger the plans God has for us, the bigger are the problems which come our way. Also remember that while things occasionally make our lives easier, they don’t make our lives fuller. Only God can do that. So let’s look at the characteristics of an abundant life.
Complete dependence on/submission to the Father. God is not some deistic entity off creating again on some distant planet. He is here, now, involved in the daily lives of each one of us. All of our lives God has had a plan for us; he knew us 20 years ago, knows us now, and knows where we will be 20 years from now. Our part is to trust Him. Everything depends on Him anyway, so why not submit to Him in all things? Proverbs 3:5-6 says to ‘trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’.
Intimate relationship with the Father. Ask yourself this question, “Why do I love God?” Is it because He can do things for you or solve your problems? Or is it because He is simply who He is. After Jesus had fed the 5000, they woke up the next morning to find him gone. Looking for breakfast, eventually they found him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus brought them up short when he said to them, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” Many of those folks were after a meal; not receiving it many left and did not return. Blessings will come our way as we love and serve God, but the reason we love and serve is our salvation, not what we can get. There is a saying in Hebrew, Dayenu. It means, “It is enough!” God doesn’t have to do any more for us, guys; the salvation he offered through his Son is enough. Nothing else is required.
Sacrificial service. This is a corollary to intimacy with the Father because it is an expression of one’s love of God. We want others to enjoy the boundless love of and with God our Father and because of that our heart reaches out to others. We have the promise of eternal life. We must be unselfish in our daily pursuits and must put the interests of others above our own. But beyond being selfless, we also must be a servant. Sacrificial service means to give of ourselves until it hurts. We must serve others in a way that says, ’It is a privilege to do this.’ We don’t want people to remember us and the thing we did but remember that they were blessed by God in a personal way.
Personal integrity. Merriam-Webster defines integrity as adherence to a code of moral value; an unimpaired state; the quality of being complete or undivided. When we apply this concept to our lives, we understand that we are considered whole or complete people when our beliefs have been integrated into our behavior. A heart and life of integrity is consistent in one honest direction. If a person of integrity begins a job, they finish it. If they make a promise, they keep it. If they commit a huge mistake, they admit it. If they believe something, they support that belief with their lifestyle. In this sense, they are whole and complete without a fractionalized life. Most of us have what might be called surface integrity. If a passenger left a wallet in our car with $500 in it, we would return it somehow. But God wants more than that; he also wants heart integrity. This is harder, but more fruitful. Heart integrity comes from a life aligned with God. Heart integrity looks at every decision, or action with an eye to the Word. If it lines up, it is good; if not, it is not.
These four attributes lead to abundant life because they reflect complete devotion to the Father. Submission to God results in moral behavior which in turn steers one away from improper life decisions. Intimacy with God leads a person to constantly check his or her motivation in life choices. Sacrificial service implies thinking of the other first, and personal integrity diminishes the opportunity for sin to intervene. Together they bring one’s life to a joyful completeness.