OCTOBER 26

LIFE THAT OVERFLOWS

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Williams translation: I am come for people to have life and have it till it overflows.”

There appears to be two extremes in men’s thinking: those who think this earthly life is everything, and the future is nothing; and those who think that this earthly life is nothing, and the future is everything.

In contrast to those who say, “eat, drink, and be merry,” and give no thought to the future, are those who seem to feel that present life is a dismal waiting, resignedly, pray God to speed its close, and they just exist until they hope to come into the future and whatever glory it holds. But God deliver us from such a morbid outlook, and “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” (Ps. 90:12).

There is a sense in which “the things of earth grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” There is a travail to be IN the world, but not OF it. And yet life, all life, is from His hand, and regardless of our processing’s and disciplines, testings and provings, there is a LIFE which received from Christ can overflow. So a need for balance, to see life as God views it, and not from negativism which many religions view it to be. A zest for living is not sinful, it just depends upon which source we seek to derive our life. LIVING HIS LIFE surely can make each day a joy, even during the times of severest testing, for “though the outward man perish, yet the inward is renewed day by day.” (2 Cor. 4:16).

The more we are abandoned to HIS LIFE, the less we have to try to possess it, but we find that it possesses us. We are “kept by the power of God,” rather than our trying to keep His power in our vessel. He, through us, gives the victory and causes us to be overcomers. It is GOD ALL THE WAY, and by Him we reign in life, life that overflows.

Ray Prinzing