Steven Curtis Chapman recorded a song called More to This Life and the poignant lyrics are as follows: But there's more to this life Than living and dying More than just trying
To make it through the day More to this life More than these eyes alone can see And there's more Than this life alone can be. These words speak to a life filled with purpose and the only one who can give you undying purpose is Jesus Christ. In John 10:10 Jesus gives two perspectives and one is the devil's perspective for your life which is hopeless and evil and here is the enemy's only desire for you. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
Jesus also tells of His thoughts on the subject in the second half of the verse where Jesus says I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly. Abundance (def) - a very large quantity of something.
If we wanted to minimize the power of God in our lives we would start at the source by saying that God is not able to deliver, or that God doesn't work that way, or we are so undeserving. First of all, God always delivers, and we can look at our hope in salvation and see that He delivers BIG TIME! Secondly, we would need to eliminate a large portion of scripture to say that God doesn't work that way. God's promises aren't put in the Bible to taunt us and make us believe in a lie. God's Word is true and His promises are all perfect and real. Thirdly, WE ARE UNDESERVING but that is really not the point. Romans 3:23 says All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that is real and true. But Romans 5:8 tells of God's solution where it says 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Our sinful condition did not keep God from reaching down to us, His creation, and making us right with Him by giving us His righteousness.
Our sinful condition is not the point because God took care of that on the cross by giving his Son Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our sins. The point is God's love far exceeds our sins and His love ensures we can live this life of purpose and freedom. If we filter this away and try to put any of this life change back on us then we will never realize the true freedom that ONLY Jesus can give us.
The conclusion is this: There is MORE TO LIFE THAN JUST LIVING. Living in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit is a life of abundance and power and the devil knows that if we ever focus in on living that life then his work of lies is defeated and the gospel will be proclaimed in a huge way! There is no more to this life just for us, but for all who need to see what Jesus has done in our life. So don't believe the lies of the enemy and just believe the truth of our Savior and live in the power that only He can provide. Jesus is THE MORE! Believe in the abundant life and live in the power of God and not in our own power because we don't have much power at all on our own. But God's power is overwhelming in every situation. 2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
The Pilgrimage Continues
David Warren
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