All of us want to enjoy life. We want meaning, happiness, and satisfaction. Sure, we know there will be seasons of hardship, but we also know that life can be so much more.
Perhaps the best way to answer this title question is by answering a few questions about your own life:
- What is the foundation of your life? This shapes everything about you – what you value, do, say, believe, think, and feel.
- What things in life give you the deepest sense of meaning and purpose?
- If you found out that you were dying next week, what would you spend your last few days here focused on or doing?
- If you could change something overnight in your life, what would you change… why… how would this impact you in 10 days, 10 months, 10 years?
The world promises us a full life through wealth, fame, sex, family, health, popularity, and vacations. Many religions and worldviews promise us full life through doing the right things, following the rules, and being kind. These can all be good things, but can they guarantee you a full, abundant, joyful life every minute of every day, forever?
No.
Of course not.
I encourage you this week to ponder the questions above. What is your life’s foundation? What is so valuable to you that you would spend your last few days on earth focusing on it? And of course… why?
If you’ve spent any time on this website, you know that iHope is a distinctly Christian counseling center. This is because Christ is at the center of all things, and He is the Person who gives us full life. The Bible tells us the simple answer to our title question: we live a full, abundant, good, joy-filled life if we follow Jesus and give our lives over to him.
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,” Jesus tells his followers in the gospel of John (chapter 10).
Around the world, Christians celebrated Easter today – the celebration of this Jesus’ resurrection. He was killed, buried, and raised to life by the power of God. And He offers that same power to us, that same new life to us, to every single person who wants to follow him.
I have given my life to Jesus, and the longer I am on this journey with him, the more He fills my life. I may not feel joyful all of the time, but I am joyful all of the time. Certainly not because of me. Only because of him.