HOW DO YOU FEEL? (part-10)

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 quite
a bit of success because 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 (and some are closing) as Satan dupes people into
believing attendance is unnecessary. The more he can disrupt
and eliminate righteousness, the greater success he will have
in recruiting people to his evilness.

Christians can become vulnerable to the whims of Satan when
he succeeds in rendering 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 His expectations of
those who ‘claim’ to belong to Him.

Contrast Satan’s efforts with those of the Lord. Jesus concentrates
all of His efforts to give us life. In fact He even gave His own life so
that we could have eternal 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, where we are separated from the One
who wanted to give us life. Some may want to believe that death
is final and we will be oblivious to anything. But the death that
Satan leads us to is much worse.

It’s a death that includes eternal suffering like we could never
imagine, and one that we will be keenly aware of (we will not be
oblivious to any of it). Not only will we be painfully suffering
forever, but we will also have the constant reminder that we
could have avoided this and enjoyed eternity, if we had chosen
the living process that Jesus wanted us to have.

Jesus wants to reverse the dying process and steer us into a
living process that results in eternal life. The life He wants
us to live is one with more abundance. And even better than
that, when our earthly life has ended, we step into an eternal
utopian life that is filled with a peace and joy we could never
have imagined or achieved while living in this world.

The abundant life we are promised begins when we give up the
rights to our lives and ask the Lord to take charge. When He
does, we will discover a new excitement and joy in the things
and in the people that have been around us all along, but we
missed because 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 when we become servants to
our new Master. Servanthood might not sound that exciting, but
it is, and it gives us a purpose for living when the Lord is our new
Master.

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

This happens because we have made a conscious decision to allow
Jesus to live through us. And 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 of your life so He can
help you 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 have
to 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
so that I 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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