Fullness Of Life

Fullness of Life

[Jesus said,] “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” John 10:10

FROM THE EARLIEST POST–NEW TESTAMENT TIMES, many Christians have been taught to pray against themselves. Interpreting Jesus’ call to deny ourselves (Matthew 16:24) as a prohibition of pleasure, satisfaction, and fullness, they have prayed for complete self-abnegation, enduring hardship not for the sake of the gospel but simply for the sake of hardship. It’s true that we are called to reject self-centeredness and rebellious wills, but what about the rich aspects of our lives that fit the image of God and align with his design? What about the desires the Holy Spirit puts within us? A wholesale rejection of self throws it all away. In other words, some Christians throughout history have made the thief’s job easy by stealing, killing, and destroying themselves and deferring all abundant, satisfying life to a distant age.

But Jesus came to give us a rich and satisfying life now and forever—abundant, whole, and fulfilling—which means we have every reason, even the mandate, to pray for it. His words don’t give us license to turn the promise of abundant life into a mission of self-indulgence or adversity-avoidance, but they do mean we can pray for spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, and relational healing; for protection and provision, and the grace to handle hardship when protection and provision are lacking; and for restoration of everything in our lives and the lives of others that has been stolen, killed, and destroyed. If Jesus came to undo the works of the enemy (1 John 3:8), then we can certainly pray that the enemy’s works be undone. And we can do it with confidence and zeal.

Your prayer life is not simply a wish list of things you want God to do but a vision of his Kingdom. Whatever doesn’t fit the Kingdom is a result of the Fall and a work of the thief. Aim your prayers there. Your mission in life as a follower of Jesus is to bring things into alignment with Kingdom design—to live, work, and pray for restoration. Your faith is an agent of abundant life for yourself and others. It’s why the Savior came.

The more seriously we take the future promise of God’s kingdom, the more unbearable will be the contradictions of that promise which we meet in the present.