DO YOU EVER FEEL THAT YOU ARE ALIVE, BUT NOT REALLY LIVING?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more
abundantly”
(John 10:10)

MEDITATION:
There are lot of extremes in life, aren’t there?
Things that are either diametrically opposed to each other
or things that are at opposite ends of the spectrum. There
is hot and cold, up and down, bad and good, on and off, etc.

The most important extreme in life is evil and righteousness.
One is facing God and the other is turned away from God.
One has a destiny with pleasure and the other has a destiny
with torment and pain. One relates to the destructive nature
of Satan, while the other relates to the hope available from Jesus.

When we look at the current events, we realize that Satan is
alive and well. He is ‘hell-bent’ on luring people away from
the Lord. The sad part is, we can see that he is having success
as anything righteous is continually under attack.

Christian symbols and the essence of the Christian way of life
continues to be stripped away from our society. Churches are
dwindling as Satan dupes people into believing attendance is
unnecessary. The more Satan can eliminate righteousness, the
greater success he will have in recruiting people to his evilness.

Christians are also vulnerable as his efforts can render them
useless to the earthly ministry of God. Many have already
become, or are becoming desensitized to the things that violate
God’s principles and expectations of those who ‘claim’ to belong
to Him.

Contrast Satan’s efforts with those of the Lord. Jesus
concentrates all His efforts to give us life. Think about
that for a moment. Life is the opposite extreme of death.

Satan wants to steer us into a dying process that ends with
an ultimate eternal death. However, Jesus wants to reverse
the dying process and steer us into a living process that will
result in eternal life. The life He wants us to live is one with
more abundance.

The abundant life begins when we give up the rights to our lives
and ask the Lord to take charge. When He does, we discover new
excitement and joy in things and people that have been around us
all along, but Satan prevented us from observing and enjoying them.

Another part of the abundant life is, we enter into God’s family and
our membership is confirmed as we become servants to our new
Master. Servanthood might not sound that exciting, but it is when
the Lord is our Master.

Instead of trying to find the abundant life through everything the world
has to offer, we merely have to listen to Him and follow His guidance.
Instead of moving from one frustration to another, we discover the
abundant life means moving from one enjoyment to another.

This happens because we have made a conscious decision to allow
Jesus to live through us. As a result, we have a right to the provisions
of Heaven because we have become joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

ACTION:
You might be thinking,
    “I’m more on the side of Jesus and righteousness
      than I am on the side of Satan and evilness”
But that’s not the way to look at your life. Satan might be happy
with a portion of your life that he can use to corrupt you even more,
but Jesus wants all your life so He can help you to live and enjoy life.

Pretty simple choice, isn’t it?
A life of corruptness versus a life of purity.
A life of sinfulness versus a life of righteousness.
A life of dying versus a life of abundant living.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus
to provide me with the abundant life. I can hide things from
others, but I cannot hide from You my frustrating efforts to
achieve joy and happiness. Because of Jesus, I no longer
must continue in my old way of life. I can now live in peace
and happiness as a member of Your family. Help me to give
You my all so that You can use me as part of your earthly
ministry and I can enjoy the abundant life. Forgive me for
my failures and help me to avoid allowing those failures to
discourage me and cause me to fall prey to successive failures.
Remind me that part of the abundant life is knowing that You
are there to encourage me and lift my spirits.”

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