Is The Abundant Life Passing You By?

Open Up Your Heart And Let The SON Shine In!

David Muller, Certified Lay Speaker

Jesus tells us in his Holy Word (John 10:10), “I come that they (you and I) may have life, and have it abundantly.” I firmly believe that you and I have received the “life” that Jesus came to give us as he tells us in the first part of John 10:10. The “life” refers to eternal life. Why do I believe this? Just a few minutes ago we affirmed our faith by saying together The Apostles Creed, and by stating the Creed we publicly announced to each other that we believe the following:

So, with this assurance we can raise our hands to heaven and sing praises to God, thanking Him for this gift of eternal life, right? Absolutely!

When we confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and we believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we will be saved. Your salvation is guaranteed. But the journey is not complete. Do not stop here. To have eternal life is great, but there is more. Jesus Christ not only came so we could have life, but to have life more abundantly. All believers have “life”. Unfortunately, not all believers have abundant life. We are not living up to the standard that God wants us to live, if we are not enjoying the abundant life.

You may ask, “What is this abundant life?” and “How do I receive it?” I will share with you later what the ingredients for an abundant life are.

How do I receive this abundant life? First and foremost, for our lives to be abundant, it must have abundant resources. The only unlimited source of life is in the person of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Second, God will assure you and me of an abundant life when:

I like to concentrate on the last two. When we ask God to fill us with his Holy Spirit, we must believe two things: The Holy Spirit indwells every believer. We may be immature, weak and imperfect, but if we have been “born again” of the Spirit, He dwells in us. We may have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, but does the Holy Spirit have us that he may fill us with the abundant life? The abundant life is not found in the environment or in circumstances, or in the things we possess. It is found in the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Asking God to fill us with the Holy Spirit is not a one-time deal, then we will be filled with the Holy Spirit the rest of our lives. No, we need to ask God to fill us with his Holy Spirit every day during our prayer time.

Our spiritual life becomes a mature life. The scriptures reveal four stages of spiritual growth in the Christian life. They are:

  1. The Baby Stage.
  2. The Little Child Stage.
  3. The Young Person Stage.
  4. The (Mature) Adult Stage.
The Baby Stage: An infant thinks only of itself, and if denied the thing desired, the baby will raise a rumpus. It seeks its own; its feelings are easily hurt and it is often jealous. A baby lives to be served, but never to serve. It drinks milk and cannot eat solid food. It cries, but never sings. It tries to talk, but never makes sense.

These infant characteristics are so prominent in the lives of so many church members. They have been born into the family of God, but have failed to develop spiritually.

The Little Child Stage: Some Christians grow to be little children spiritually and stop there. Some of the characteristics of children are:

  1. Often untruthful, envious and cruel.
  2. If rebuked, they become martyrs; if crossed, they become resentful and often make a scene.
  3. Often talebearers, repeating everything they hear (in adults it is called gossip).
  4. Often have emotional outbursts and are easily puffed up.
  5. Love praise and will accept it from any source.
  6. Seek only the things that appeal to self.
Sound familiar?

The Young Adult Stage: (Here we find the ingredients that go into making an abundant life.) This stage of spiritual development can be reached by all. Unfortunately, so few ever attain it.

  1. The spiritually mature adult has peace with God because they know the peace of God.
  2. They rejoice in their spiritual children.
  3. They have learned to be content under all circumstances.
  4. They know the only true source of strength.
  5. They don’t brood over the past, but look to the future.
  6. They know that all things work together in their lives for their eternal good.
  7. They enjoy the abundant life now and will enjoy it in the life to come.
As a Christian and as you travel on your spiritual journey, at what stage is your spiritual development? The baby stage, the little child stage, the young adult stage, or the (mature) adult stage.

Here is a question that is not asked very often: Are we ashamed to die? The following is a conversation a pastor had with one of his parishioners.

In the first year of my ministry, I sat at the bedside of a dying friend. As we talked of his going home, tears filled his eyes. Being young in he Lord, I thought he was afraid to die and attempted to speak words of encouragement to him. He said, “I’m not afraid to die. I’m ashamed to die”. He went on to say that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior, but he had lived for self, and now he had to meet the Lord single-handed. His life loomed up before him and it was a life he was ashamed of. Why? Because the abundant life passed him by. So I ask you and myself, are we living the abundant life that Jesus said He came to earth to give us, or are we letting it pass us by? If we feel it is passing us by, then do as the song that I sang this morning said:

Open up your heart and let the SON shine in.

Amen.