Secrets of the Abundant Life - Joy

James 1: 2 – 8 (NIV): Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

We must realize that the abundant life will have sunshine and rain. It will have the full range of emotions, but joy comes when we realize that everything is working together for our good and for God's glory. Joy is not the absence of pain, it is the presence of God. The land needs sunshine and rain and our spirits need beautiful moments, yes, but also trials of many kinds.
Why? James says the trials that test our faith make us stronger because each test develops perseverance, which, in turn, makes us more mature. The reason he says to consider it pure joy when we face trials is because he knew there were no shortcuts to maturity – the only path is through perseverance.
And it is a good thing to be mature. That is a goal we all should strive for. Maturity keeps us from saying things that hurt us and others. Maturity keeps us from riding the ups and downs of happiness like a runaway roller coaster. Maturity reminds us that God is in control and, therefore, we do not have to worry. Maturity gives us a strong, God-pleasing faith that does not waver.
Will we always be happy? Of course not and the Bible never promises that. What it promises is that we can have joy despite our circumstances. Joy is that constant reminder that we are walking with God. It is the sanity in an insane world.
Joy is having hope that it is going to be okay. Perhaps the best gift our faith gives us in this life is hope. We know that this life is only our temporary home; we know that God is in control; we know that paradise awaits. We can smile through the hurricanes of life and in the eye of the storm because of the hope we have. That gives us joy and takes us well on our way toward the abundant life.

Secrets of the Abundant Life – The Gift of Self-Worth

John 15: 9 – 17 (NIV): As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

It's interesting that Jesus said the second commandment is to love others as we love ourselves. This implies that we love ourselves. The Bible clearly teaches that God wants us to do this. This is how we know what others want and need. This gives us a standard as we set out to love each other.
When we read scripture passages like ours today, we begin to realize how much we are truly worth. We begin to see how valuable we are to God – and that gives us tremendous self-worth and a healthy self-esteem. Joy is putting Jesus first, others second and ourselves last, but a healthy self-esteem allows us to do this. We value our own lives and desire to become better each day, and in that process we are able to focus on others and their needs and not just our own. We feel good about who we are and that frees us to make sure other people's needs are being met too. It prevents us from making choices that hurt others.
Why do we feel so good about ourselves? Because God has made us his children. That makes us princes and princesses. We realize that our father owns everything and that makes us beyond rich. We realize that we were created for God's pleasure (Colossians 1:16). We realize that we are Jesus' friends and he loves us so much he laid down his life for us. (Notice the only catch is we must do what he commands. What does he command? That we put our trust in him for life and salvation and to love each other.)
A healthy self-esteem means we are not full of pride or arrogance. We are not selfish or self-centered. We realize that we are children of the King and we don't want to disappoint him. We realize we were created and we are not accidents or junk or mistakes. God doesn't make junk and he doesn't make mistakes. This gives us self-respect and puts us on our way to living the abundant life.

Secrets of the Abundant Life – The Circle of Love

1 John 3: 1- 5 (NIV): How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

The most wonderful, powerful, joyful, unspoiled force in the universe is the love that God has for us. In Isaiah 49:16, God says, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Paul says nothing can separate us from God's love, and you know what Jesus said about God's love in John 3:16. John says God has “lavished” his love on us in today's passage. God loves us with an unselfish, unconditional, sacrificial love and it literally makes the world go round.
One of life's mysteries is why God loves us so much. We certainly don't deserve it, but he “rejoices over us with singing” Zephaniah 3:17 says. He loves us like a truly good father loves his children.
So, the third secret of the abundant life is to realize how much God loves us, then love him back. Micah 6:8 tells us that what God wants from us is to walk with him. Jesus said the first commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5. If we want to live the abundant life, it will begin with loving God with all of our hearts. We will begin to have the wonderful feeling that we are fulfilling our purpose. Our life will have meaning and we will have a joy we never knew before.
But it must not end there. The fourth secret of the abundant life is loving each other as we love ourselves. When we love others with a sacrificial, holy love, and put their needs ahead of our own, we will begin to truly live. We will find ourselves in a wonderful circle of love and we are well on our way to living the abundant life.

Secrets of the Abundant Life - Paradise Awaits

John 10: 9 - 10 (NIV): I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

I want to write a series of columns on the secrets of living the abundant life. Secret number one is to realize that God wants us to live a full, joyful, abundant life and has done his part to offer it to us. Now, we must believe it and start living it.
As we study the scriptures we realize we were created to live in paradise. Paradise was lost because that's the price we pay for not being God's pets or puppets. God wants us to love him of our own free will and choice – otherwise our love for him would not be authentic and he would receive no pleasure from it. In fact, we are created for God's pleasure and that comes from our freely loving him. But even though we have fallen from paradise, we can still live an abundant life. The NIV says “to the full” in today's passage.
This doesn't mean we are offered a life devoid of conflict, trials or pain, it means we live life to its fullest potential. A full life will include conflict, trials and pain, but it will still be abundant. It will be a life worth living. We can live in peace with God and with each other. We can have a purpose and know that we are a blessing to others and that our existence has meaning. Do you realize we are the only creatures on earth who appreciate art and beauty? We are the only creatures who are self-aware and who can look beyond our own existence. And we can know that we have paradise to look forward to and that we will spend the vast, vast majority of our existence there.
The second secret of the abundant life is to realize that life on this earth is only temporary. Our true home is with God in heaven forever and ever. But even though our lives on this earth are only temporary, God wants us to live here to the full as well. We have the perspective that because our lives are temporary, so are our trials and pain. We begin to see the big picture. The second secret of living the abundant life is realizing where our permanent home is and that this life isn't it.