Submitted by Lara Cook
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
When I see the word “LIFE” it stirs feelings of nostalgia. When I was a kid growing up, the Life cereal commercials with Mikey were popular. I loved watching those commercials as a kid and always wanted my mother to buy Life cereal, which is the whole purpose of advertising right? Their goal is to make us always want something else – whatever it is they are selling.
We are all after life, searching for anything that will make life fun and exciting and take away the pain and mundane. The devil is selling it hard. He wants us to seek life in everything that will take us away from Jesus – the only true source of life: And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:11-12
Jesus is life. He gives life, and whoever has Him has life. In Him, through Him, and from Him all life flows, yet we continually seek life in other places.
The Whole World-For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Mark 8:35-36
Even if you gain the whole world, you still lose your life. Gain from the world only offers death, not the life we seek. A full life, an abundant life cannot be found in the world. Jesus was telling them, to gain life, you must lose it. You must be willing to give up the world and all you cling to and lay it down in exchange for the life He gives. You can’t have both. Jesus is the only source of true life.
Even if you gain the whole world, you still lose your life. Gain from the world only offers death, not the life we seek. A full life, an abundant life cannot be found in the world. Jesus was telling them, to gain life, you must lose it. You must be willing to give up the world and all you cling to and lay it down in exchange for the life He gives. You can’t have both. Jesus is the only source of true life.
Abundant Life
What is it that we seek after so desperately? Not just life, but a full life,an abundant life. No one wants to settle for the average life. So we strive, we go into debt, we eat, we shop, we sign up for every class and sign our kids up for every sport, we post, we tweet, we follow, and still we don’t find it. Jesus said that the whole reason He came was so that we could have life – abundantlife. The abundantlife we seek can only be found in Him. When we seek it in the wrong places, we pay a high price and find nothing. He offers this abundant life freely to all who receive.
What is it that we seek after so desperately? Not just life, but a full life,an abundant life. No one wants to settle for the average life. So we strive, we go into debt, we eat, we shop, we sign up for every class and sign our kids up for every sport, we post, we tweet, we follow, and still we don’t find it. Jesus said that the whole reason He came was so that we could have life – abundantlife. The abundantlife we seek can only be found in Him. When we seek it in the wrong places, we pay a high price and find nothing. He offers this abundant life freely to all who receive.
Eternal Life = I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5: 13Life doesn’t end for us when we take our last breath here on earth. Jesus not only provides us with abundant life here on earth, but also eternal life forever. Eternal life is not just about years. We already have eternal life if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Jesus promises us true, abundant, eternal life. He is life. Only in Him can we find what we seek and what the world falsely promises. We will always, always be left disappointed and empty by anything other than Him, but in Him we will abundant, eternal life.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
