Life more abundant
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
I read once about a beautiful eagle that was kept in a large cage in a zoo. People admired the imprisoned bird that was meant to soar into the heavens. One day the cage door was left open and the great bird walked out into freedom. But the years of imprisonment had robbed it of the power of flight, and it was soon returned to its tiny home.
It can be the painful experience of the Lord’s people to cease to soar into the presence of God. We can confine ourselves to cages of our own making. I remember a dear and gifted brother who fell out with his brethren and never returned into fellowship with the Lord’s people until he was in his mid-eighties. It was a joyous thing for him to come back. But many, many years of fellowship, contribution and service were lost, and he was called home not long after.
We are on the threshold of another new year in God’s will. It stretches out before us with the dark clouds of COVID-19 and all its restrictions. Yet it may not be COVID-19 that weighs us down but other issues which cause us distress and prevent us from enjoying the salvation we have in Christ. The Lord said those beautiful words, “I have come that they may have life.” Once we possess life in Christ, it cannot be taken from us: “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s” (John 10:28-29).
In the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, there was a table in the Holy Place. It was called the Table of Showbread. On it were kept twelve loaves of bread, representing the twelve tribes of Israel under the eye of God. What is interesting is that there was a crown of gold (Exodus 37:12, AV) which surrounded the loaves on the table, keeping them in place. What has always touched my heart is that the crown measured a hand’s breadth – “Neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand … and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
The Lord came so that we would have life and have it more abundantly. He described a full, rich, mature, fruitful and joyous life that had its source and security in the Son of God and God the Father and was sealed by the Spirit of God. As we wait to enter a new year, let us not be imprisoned by doubt or fear or circumstances. But let us see the days ahead, through the open door of God’s grace, as a runway from which, set free by faith, we soar every day into the presence of God and are empowered to live to the full the lives He has given us. Unlike the eagle, we never lose the ability to fly, only the faith to do so: “Do not be afraid; only believe” (Luke 8:50).
