Aspects of an Abundant Life
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
It is impossible to imagine an abundant life that is at the same time one of hopelessness. Thus to the prior week’s “fullness” terms of joyful, prayerful, purposeful and fruitful we conclude the theme about aspects of an abundant life by focusing on hopefulness as an important ingredient in living a full and meaningful life.
Christian hope reaches beyond this present time. Thus it is not some kind of whistling in the dark, play-acting or reality denying approach to the disappointments, setbacks or tragedies of everyday life in this present age.
A believer’s hope has its anchor in a blessed future.
Look forward and upward
The truth of 1 Corinthians 15:19 refers to Christians when it reads, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men the most pitiable.” We must look forward and upward for the hope that adds abundance to our days.
As Titus 2:13 puts it we are living unto the future “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
A part of the abundant life found in Christ is the prospect of Hebrews 6:18 that “we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” The present guarantee of this hope is “Christ in you” that constitutes the basis for hope. The reality of this guarantee is termed a “mystery hidden from ages [all time past] and from generations [all people past] but now has been revealed to His saints” (Col. 1:26–27).
Hope enables patient endurance that can put abundance into a heart where despair or depression seeks to enter. Christian hope is much more than a firmly set jaw or gritted teeth determined to endure whatever life throws our way.
Abundance and endurance are by no means first cousins. Christ came to make abundant life possible not merely to foster endurance for life’s hard times.
Biblical hope is in the category of confident expectation that what God has promised He is able and willing to do. This hope embraces the biblical witness about Abraham long ago who was “fully convinced that what [God] had promised He was also able to perform” (Rom. 4:21).
This last session that ties an abundant life to the possession of a blessed and future hope might appropriately conclude with the benediction of Romans 15:13: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Share with others: