Fullness of Joy, Abundant Life, and All the Desires of Your Heart

January 3, 2008

Are any of those words true of the Christian life? Be honest with yourself. Are they? Look around at other Christians you know, look at yourself. Is that what you see? Most likely not. Very few would describe their life in this manner, and yet promises such as these are found all over His Word.

Ps. 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is] fulness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for evermore.

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.

Ps. 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Ps. 21:2 Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.

I could go on and on with verses that express the Lord's delight in His children's happiness, joy, prosperity, fulfillment, and pleasure, not just in Spiritual ways but in all kinds of ways, and yet we live our lives in utter defeat... even spiritually. Why? Some have one or more of these blessings from God and do not even recognize them as from Him. Some of us do find God's blessings on our lives financially, but we stop there. Some of us find them relationally and we think that is all He has for us. And still others find His health and mental well-being and are satisfied to stop there. And a few have found vast spiritual blessings and bask in the love and warmth of His presence on a daily basis and are content. But there are a few that read his word and find that He truly wants to open up the window of heaven and 'bless our socks off' so to speak, if we would just ask him. We look at them in scorn and say, 'it's not possible! God can't be your Father, God, Healer, Protector, Provider, Strength, Joy, Source of Life, Desire, Supplier, Sustainer, and so much more all at the same time! He can only be one thing at a time, right? He is only one thing to one person, right? Ok, maybe two..."

God is all things to all men. He is everything to me, and He is everything to you. The things that I have are from Him and the things that you have are from Him... and that person that has everything has it all from Him because

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

So what is keeping us from having all that God promises us that we can have? (and I don't mean let's all just be selfish and be little brats going "Daddy! Daddy! Give me! Give me!) It's faith!

Hebrews 11:6 For without faith it's impossible to please Him.

Matt. 9:29 According to your faith be it unto you.

Matt. 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

And what else is often keeping us from these things? The lack of a surrendered life. We wander around going why doesn't God bless me... and we haven't yet died to self, we haven't yet invited Him to live His resurrected life through us (I don't mean salvation folks, I mean Christianity! The Christian Life!). Some of those promises hinge on something - sometimes we need to delight in Him a little bit, give Him a little praise, give Him control over our lives and we'd be amazed at the thing that would come to pass.

But not all... some of them are just God the Abba Father jumping for joy for a chance to bestow gifts upon his children such as Rom. 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely giveus all things? and Ps. 81:10 I [am] the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

I will end with this beautiful verse from Jeremiah.

Jer. 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Do we really believe this, or do we think that God wants us to live our lives like miserable, depressed, sickly and defeated people? I for one am tired of feeling defeated and depressed, miserable and sickly. I want a Victorious Christian Life! I want an abundant life full of joy where the desires of my heart actually come to pass and aren't ground to dust before my eyes. This is a life that God can offer us if we will only have faith in who he is and surrender to His control.

*I am in no way saying that the Christian life is all peaches and cream, but I am saying that we tend to say the sentence I just said as an excuse for the life of defeat that we have so miserably embraced. There is a balance. Hardship and trials come to make us stronger, to bring us to surrender, to bring us to the cross, etc. There are reasons for these things... but God wants to bless His children more than anything! What makes God happier? A stubborn child who he has to send trials to break down, or a yielded child who He can bless? Also, think of Job... God allowed Satan to bring things upon him (SATAN) so that God could get the glory... so yes bad things also happen for that purpose... but then what did GOD do? Blessed Job above and beyond what he started with! The nature of God is to bless. Please don't dismiss the blessings of God away because you are afraid of becoming too unbalanced in blessings! Can anyone be too blessed? LOL

Adendum: These are words that I have heard little of until recent years... I struggle with this very much, hence the writing about it today. I've been questioning God on this topic for over a month now, but I can't deny that it's in the Scripture. It is truth. He wants to bless me and give me life more abundant here on earth, not just in Heaven or in New Jerusalem (whichever comes first for me! Even so come quickly Lord Jesus!) I will be posting a few more blogs on this topic as well, I think. More word study. I looked up the word abundant, and was amazed at what I saw. I think I will do that next. This is something that Christianity is missing, and that I am missing. He needs to be my Joy, Life and Desires in a way I never dreamed and I know it's possible, I just have to get it from my head to my heart. So if you want to, join me on my journey!