Suggested Reading: John 10:1-18
In
my travels, I have seen extreme poverty. I have seen people trapped, without
hope of escape from the downward cycle of scarcity. It is such a horrible thing
to witness, let alone experience. I don’t know anyone who would knowingly
choose poverty, if abundance was available. But I have seen many choose to live
spiritually impoverished lives, often in the midst of physical abundance.
It
seems that Jesus was getting at this bizarre dichotomy when He spoke about how
hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. When we are physically
comfortable, we tend toward pride and self-satisfaction, the subtle sins that
so easily entangle. We somehow begin to feel that we deserve our abundance and
we use our wealth to find new diversions, to mask the pain of our spiritual
poverty.
Blaise
Pascal, the scientist, mathematician, and philosopher, suggested that there is
a God shaped hole in the heart of every man. This hole is like a vacuum that
demands to be filled. Thirteen hundred years earlier Augustine described the
same phenomenon when he observed that our hearts are restless until we find our
rest in God. Both men were describing the longing of every human heart for a
full heart and a full life.
The
baby Jesus was born to bring us abundant life, a full life that flows from a
full heart. He promised that anyone who came to Him would be filled to
overflowing with the very presence of God; streams of living water welling up
and flowing out so we might never thirst again. Imagine living in a desert land
and hearing that kind of promise! It sounds too good to be true.
Nothing
about God is too good to be true. He is the way, the truth and the life.
Through Him, and only through Him, we can come to the Father. With this
foundational divine relationship in place, all of life takes on a different
tone. We can enjoy all the wonderful things God has given us, when we are not
trying to draw from them more than they can supply.
The
abundant life is not necessarily a life of abundance. It is a life of
contentment whatever the circumstances, because you know the One who works all
circumstances together for your good. It is the life Christ lived, and is now
available to us in Him and because of Him.
....
Questions:
What
is preventing you from experiencing the abundant life?
Is
there something with which you have been trying to fill your heart?
How
can you seek the abundant life in and through Jesus?
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