The Abundant Life: Riches money can’t buy…
The abundant life realizes that life is unpredictable. It’s filled with inconveniences, difficulties, and frustrations. For want of a better word—life is messy.
For those of us who love routine, order, and organization, life’s messiness can take a toll. It’s a bitter lesson to learn that no matter how hard we try to control things, life isn’t neat and tidy.
Unfortunately, a lot of people aren’t neat and tidy either. Unfortunately, they can be in our families. Unfortunately, they can be our co-workers. Unfortunately, they can be our boss. Unfortunately, they are all around us.
Here’s the truth. Life is unpredictable. Life is just one inconvenience after another. Major tragedies and minor frustrations will always abound. Disorganized people will always tend to disrupt those who aren’t. Dealing with life’s troubles can be stressful, time consuming, overwhelming, and uncomfortable.
However, those living the abundant life realize that God is not as concerned about our comfort as He is about how we deal with our discomfort. We are always going to have some unexpected mess to deal with. When we overreact and let things irritate or upset us to the point where we are angry or irrational, we cannot reflect God’s love.
Reflecting God’s love is important because our lives are not our own. We belong to Jesus. We were bought with a price. (1 Corinthians 6:20) Since our lives belong to Jesus, He will always meet us in the midst of the mess. All God’s children have to deal with messes, but Jesus is always with them. He was with Joseph when he was sold into slavery by his brothers. He was with Job when he was stricken with boils. He was with Nehemiah when he was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. He was with Gideon when he was facing battle. He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.
The key to their survival was looking to God, not their situations. That’s the key to our sanity and peace of mind as well. When we don’t look to God/Jesus/Holy Spirit, the images of what we experience get distorted and blurry. Jesus gives us the flexibility we need to live with the messes as they come along. There’s an old saying that rings true: Blessed are the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape.
The abundant life knows that God is greater than our circumstances. Messes come and go but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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“…I have come that they may have life and that they
may have it more abundantly.” ~John 10:10 (KJV)
