Thank you to all the ladies who were able to join us last Friday.  Here are the notes from what I shared, without all the personal stories. 

I.  What is Abundant Living for the Christian?  Where does it come from and how do I obtain it?

II.  In order to know what the source is for the Abundant Life, we can turn to the words of Jesus Christ to lay our foundation:

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  John 10:10

“I am the way, the truth, and the life…”  John 14:6

God alone, through Jesus Christ, is the source for the Abundant Life.

III.  Now, let’s ask ourselves what is having an Abundance?  Many of us may believe that having an abundance means having everything in life that we want.  I believe, however, that it is having more than enough for the season of life you are in.

So, let’s discuss three different types of seasons we may find ourselves in so we can better understand God’s plan for Abundant Living…

IV.  The Wilderness Season:  Many of us have experienced a season of dryness and leanness…Israel did, too.  Wandering through the desert doesn’t seem like Abundant Living, but it was exactly what God had in mind to teach Israel:

a.  To worship only God

b.  To obey His commands

c.  To be thankful

d.  To trust Him

Read Deuteronomy 8:2-10

V.  Promised Land:  What about the season of life where everything is going great in your life…you are in the Promised Land, except you can’t get your hands on the one thing you desire?  Like the perfect job you are longing for?  Or a husband?  Or your dream of owning a home?  Or a baby?  Although we feel like we are living in the Promised Land, we have a hard time laying hold of the one thing we desperately want.

God recently reminded me of Psalm 37, “Trust in the Lord, and do good, dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness.  Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” 

We often focus on the part where God says He will give us the desires of our heart.  But God showed me that having the desires of my heart is conditional on delighting myself in Him. 

You might finally get the thing for which you are longing, but it will not fulfill you if Christ is not your foundation.  God does not want us to make idols out of the good things He wants to give us.  It sneaks up on you.  If you don’t learn to delight yourself in the Lord, you start making your hearts desire your priority instead of God Himself your priority.

In Elisabeth Elliot’s bookPassion & Purityshe says ‘God is not as interested in making you happy as He is interested in making you Holy.’  Holy means to be set apart to the Lord.

VI.  Trouble:  the last season I want to discuss is the season of trouble.  Do our circumstances dictate whether or not we can enjoy God’s abundant life?

No, I do not believe they do.  Psalm 23 is the perfect picture of experiencing God’s abundance in the face of great trouble. 

God never said life would be easy.  He told us there would be trouble…but He promises not to “leave us nor forsake us.”  Here it says He walks with us through “the valley of the shadow of death,” and He “prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.” 

The first line is also very striking, David confesses, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want!”  Another word for “want” is “lack.”  I shall not lack!

Clearly God has provision for us, even in the face of great trouble—so much so that David says, “my cup runs over!”  That is the perfect picture of abundance!

David was not swayed by his circumstances, though he faced great trouble.  We need to be people who are so close to Jesus, we can say the same when trouble comes.

VII.  Summary:  the abundant life is found in Christ alone.  Not in what we do or do not have.  How can we learn to delight ourselves in Him when we are in the Wilderness, or when we are waiting for the fulfillment of something we desperately desire, or when we are facing great trouble?

I believe we can learn to delight in Him by putting God first in our lives.  Building our life’s foundation on Jesus Christ alone.  Remember He came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.

If you focus on what seems to be missing in life, you’ll totally miss out on what God has provided for the season you are in right now, you’ll miss seeing Jesus now.

It’s easy to become preoccupied with worrying about tomorrow.  But worrying robs you of the joy God has for you today.

If you want a life that does not lack, that you can say, my cup runs over, learn to delight yourself in God.  You will enjoy an abundant life!

*** This post was accidentally deleted. Sorry for the confusion and thank you for taking the time to read it!

There are many times in life where we come to the end of ourselves. We realize we can’t make our hopes, dreams, and plans a reality. It is humbling. And it is often in this place that we see God.

My father once told me about something Watchman Née calls “the thing in hand.” He told me, “you have to open your hand and let go of the thing you’re holding onto in order to get what God has for you.”

Isn’t this what Abraham had to do when he laid his son Isaac on the alter? Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” (Genesis 22:8) Could Abraham have known then what God had in mind, and how by being willing to lay down Isaac, God was bound by covenant to do the same?

About a week ago I planted a shade garden in my yard. It doesn’t look like what I had envisioned. I keep staring at it thinking, “grow!”

And in this moment I heard God teaching me something. I realized that all I can do is plant the flowers. God is responsible for the rain, sun, and time that are necessary to make my plants grow. My efforts, my good works, my dreams all amount to nothing without God’s grace.

We have an excellent example of what this looks like in the life of Jesus when He laid down His life on the alter and trusted the Father to resurrect Him. Even Jesus had to know when to say, “it is finished.” (John 19:30) - Thanks, Pastor Tim, for this reminder!

I’m learning to let go…of control. I’m opening my hand, giving my dreams to the Lord. Laying my life down to let God be God. I can only plant my life in the Vine, trusting the Father to provide. (John 15:1-8)

When we let go of our control, we get God’s grace.

“Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.”. 1 Corinthians 15:36

“He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39

“For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord…” Proverbs 8:35

For further reading: http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/nee/5f00.0638/5f00.0638.3.htm

Chad and I got on FaceTime with my parents the other night. It was so nice to see them, even if only through the internet. Oh the joys of modern technology!

Chad and I shared about a specific challenge in our lives that at times seems hopeless. When something feels hopeless it is difficult not to dwell on the problem, becoming anxious and overwhelmed with the impossibilities.

My father reminded us that hope protects the mind and faith protects the heart: “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and [as] a helmet the hope of salvation.” 1 Thessalonians 5:8

He also said, “without hope you cannot have faith, because “faith is the substance of things hoped for…” (Hebrews 11:1)

It begins with hope. My father defines hope as “the expectation of God’s goodness toward me.” It seems easy to believe this for others, but do we believe this for ourselves? Do we trust and believe what God says in His Word about me?

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

“For with God nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:37

Do not lose your hope, friends, for from it faith is birthed.

Autumn has long since past, but on my walks I notice trees that have retained their dead leaves. It puzzles me to see them, all their life and glory faded. What will happen in the spring? Are these trees dead?

I recently listened to a sermon by Timothy Keller. He was talking about how difficult it is to get rid of unrighteous anger. He likened the process of change in the Christian life to shedding dead leaves. Sometimes you have to wait for the new leaf to push off the dead one.

My father says, “God doesn’t want to just clean up the old man. He wants to give you a whole new nature.”

When we come to God, we can be like these seemingly lifeless trees, full of dead leaves. If God just made something moderately respectable out of the way we are, it would be like spray painting our dead leaves green.

It is working out of the new nature that slowly pushes out the old, dead nature, just like last year’s dead leaves. It is a process that takes time and abiding in the life of Christ.

God says in Isaiah 55:13, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree…” Our ways produce thorns and briers (frustration and futility), but God’s ways produce beautiful, fruitful LIFE!

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ” John 15:5

“…by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4 

“…that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24

“Blessed is the man…[whose]…delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” Psalm 1:1-3

When I was in high school, my father sensed I was beginning to make friends with those who were not a positive influence in my life.  He said to me, “the stronger will influence the weaker.”

In my weakness I was influenced in unrighteousness.  I had to ask myself, “is this friend helping me become more like Christ or less like Him?”  Quite honestly, at times it was hard for me to say “no” to friendships leading me down a path I knew I should not be on. 

The Bible teaches, “Do not be deceived, “Evil company corrupts good habits.”  Awake to righteousness and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God.”  1 Corinthians 15:33-34

If your friends are stronger in their habits than you and are influencing you toward a life of righteousness, praise God for those friends!  But if they are influencing you toward unrighteousness, it is time to find new friends, those who will encourage you toward godliness!

Also, do not just ask yourself how you are being influence, but are you yourself being a good influence on others? Are you positive, encouraging, do you speak the truth in love?  Or do you excuse sin and speak negatively?

Let us be those who pull others up toward righteousness.

“We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.”  Romans 15:1-2

“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”  James 5:19-20

“Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.  He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.”  3 John 11

“But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.”  1 Corinthians 5:11

“…keep oneself unspotted from the world.”  James 1:27

Happy New Year, friends. In honor of the new year and making resolutions I thought I’d share from the treasured wisdom of my father…

I spent the first eight years of my life in East Lansing, Michigan. I have a few vivid memories of the harsh, cold, snowy winters. I remember staring out from the car window and only seeing a white wall of snow. My father says the ice would build up in the wheel well of our car, making it difficult to drive. At times he would have to stop to chip away at the ice build up.

He told me that during such a laborious incident of ice-chipping he thought to himself, “I bet if I just pointed the car toward Florida and kept driving, by the time I get there all the ice will be completely melted away.”

As you reflect on the past year and your hopes for a new year, perhaps you are feeling weighed down by disappointment, bitterness, poor habits, and sin. The answer for ridding yourself of the build up is not to sit and chip away at it, but to turn your life in the direction of Jesus. My father says, “by the time you get to Jesus all the junk in your life will be melted away.”

Point your life’s compass toward Jesus. He has the power to free you of any burden that is hindering you on your journey.

Here is another resource for your new year: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/12/5-steps-to-making-new-years-resolutions-happen/

Blessings, friends for 2012!

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 NKJV)