Do you live on an emotional roller coaster? Happy about good news, angry when things aren’t going as expected, depressed when there is a lack of excitement? Are you worried about what to do with your life? Confused about all the opinions that we are bombarded with and don’t know what to believe? I “feel like” this really describes most our current culture. And maybe you assume this is normal. Isn’t a stressed out life just common place anymore? Yes, it does appear to be how the majority expect to live. However, I want to give everyone hope and the encouragement that this is not the life Jesus intended for us to live. This is not why He came.
I had a hard time choosing a picture today, I would entitle this one “an abundance of abundances”. This particular sweet little spring flower (sorry horticultural experts, I don’t know what they are called) I bought about 3 years ago and planted it (mind you it was one cute little white flower) in a bed in front of the house. Today I have an abundance, a crazy out of control abundance!
In my mind, this is what Jesus is trying to portray to His audience in John 10. He is using the illustration of a shepherd, a good shepherd in fact. One that cares for, knows, and lays down His life for His sheep. He is contrasting this with the enemy who comes in to steel the sheep or kill the sheep. Jesus doesn’t want to harm or “stress out” the sheep, He wants to give the sheep (humanity) life. And not just life, but eternal life. The word “life” used in this verse is the same word as is used in John 3:16. God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so they we may have LIFE – real genuine life obtained in fellowship with Christ.
Jesus doesn’t stop there, He finishes this thought with AND have it to the full. To the full, meaning exceedingly, abundantly, beyond measure – like my flowers are quickly becoming.
Just let that sink in for a moment. Why did Jesus come?
What should our life as a Christ follower look like?
Sad? Maybe at times. Jesus had sad experiences. Just look at how he felt when he lost his friend/ministry partner/cousin John. I have had many sad days, that is reality.
Mad? For sure Jesus was ticked off about unrighteous behavior. There are times when we are going to rightly feel the same.
My question is not about what we feel occasionally, it’s about where we hang out spiritually and emotionally, day in and day out. Jesus came to give us a life that is so good it spills over. I have yet to find an example of Jesus “stressing out”, or dwelling in an angry, frustrated, depressed, or “fill in the blank with your emotion” state.
In my simple thinking, it’s a matter for me and for everyone of what we are dwelling on or the object of our thoughts and emotions. I can start changing my thought pattern, and emotional response to things just by acknowledging and meditating on the fact that Jesus came to so that I can have life, no not just life, but abundant life. I can be grateful. I can I can invest my time thinking about and talking about what what this life He came to give me means and in time I can see; peace during troubled waters, joy in the midst of hardship, gladness when things didn’t go as expected, because I trust that God is working it out for His good. Yes, this is a good verse to commit to memory and to LIVE out, every day. He came so that I could have life, and have it to the point of overflowing!
