Bountiful Life

Be encouraged when people attack you for your faith or beliefs as a Christian, which typically tend to go against societal trends. Whenever someone attacks me based on my Biblical values and accuse me of believing in “archaic thoughts” or praying to an “invisible Mickey Mouse in the sky,” for example, then I am always encouraged that these same people who attack me for my faith WILL one day bow their knee and confess that Jesus is Lord.  The only difference is that I choose to do so now and enjoy the benefits of a relationship with the Lord that these people do not have.

Philippians 2:10-11 states that, “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father.” Wow. I can only imagine what that amazing scene will look like some day! I find such peace and comfort in knowing that, every time someone bashes the Bible or me for believing it as the inerrant word of God and that I hold every word in it as absolute truth that does not change to go along with societal changes, one day they too will know the truth and confess it kneeling right next to me. How I imagine the faces of those who once said hateful things about 1) God (or that he does not even exist) and/or 2) about his people being “intolerant” to sin (we do love the sinner but hate the sin and do not condone it) with their mouths gaping open as they finally see the truth for the first time.

I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful to have this precious relationship with the Lord! He has gotten me through so many messes, scrapes and deep valleys that I have lost count. The Holy Spirit has brought me immense comfort in some of my darkest times when I could see no hope at the time to keep going strong. The Holy Spirit has also spoken words of great encouragement at exactly the right time when I was going through things that nobody else knew about. He has guided me to make wise decisions when my initial instinct would have been to do something different, and the end result came out better than I ever could have imagined! Jesus has saved me and redeemed me from all my sins and is a better friend than even my best friend. God protects me, provides for my needs in jaw-dropping, unexpected ways far better than I ever could have imagined and in miraculous ways. He is also my healer and continues to heal this broken body in miraculous ways that I like to refer to as “blowing my socks off.” The Lord does things big and does them right!

I honestly have no earthly idea how people can make it through life in these very difficult times without a relationship with the Lord. Many people come up with excuses such as “I just don’t believe that stuff is for me,” or “Christians are hypocrites/intolerant.” I don’t know about you, but there is absolutely no excuse I could ever use not to believe in God. I have absolutely no doubts when it comes to the truth declared in the Scriptures, not even a shred. Somebody could try to convince me every day for an entire year all the reasons they believe God is not real and that the Bible is merely a historical fantasy, but I would still firmly believe otherwise. I have seen far too much evidence, both out there (miracles, creation, lives changed 180 degrees) and in my life (protection, healing, guidance, wisdom, unexplainable peace, supernatural strength, joy in the midst of pain, provision, etc.)

God has left us an incredible amount of proof that He exists and that He is who He says He is (for example, Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”) The problem is, many people are too busy trying to disprove God or make excuses as to why they don’t believe instead of seeing what has clearly been put right in front of them. I would think that it would take more faith not to believe than it would be to believe.

In any event, if you have doubts, ask God to make himself known to you in an unmistakable way and to open your eyes to the truth. I have heard many accounts where people called out in desperation to God that “if you exist, show me you are real” and something unmistakably miraculous happened. God changed their lives in an instant and nothing is ever the same again (in a great way!) I have never heard anyone say they regretted their decision to surrender their life to God and start living for him. I have heard many, many times however, that “it was the best decision I ever made!! Why didn’t I do this much sooner?”

I would not trade anything in this world with the precious relationship I have found with the Lord! Everything else on the earth will pass away, but my soul will live on for eternity. We all have the same decision to make…where will I spend eternity?

Not only are we “adopted” into God’s family when we trust in His Son Jesus Christ as our savior and commit our lives to him, we have an eternity in heaven to look forward to! On this earth, we are given strength to live for today, new mercies every morning, peace that passes ALL understanding and inexplicable deep down joy plus so much more! Life will not be perfect or easy by any means, but we will have all we need to live a good life, even in this sinful, broken world no MATTER what we face in life, because he promises to walk with us through it and give us all we need to live victoriously! J