Living Life to the Full
As we celebrate Easter 2023...
Most people don’t have a problem filling their twenty-four hours in a day. You may feel like life is so overfull at the moment that you hardly have time to read this! But stick with me for a few minutes, please. Your days may be full, but are you living a full life? Admittedly, there are already thousands of life coaches and self-help gurus out there, with attractive websites featuring pictures of beautiful people, telling us how to live life to the full. But there is One whose approach is unique from all others. History is a living testimony to the life His followers have gained. And He wants to give you life to the full.
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Many people are honest and wise enough to recognize the shallowness of so much that passes for a full life. More money, more Instagram followers, more parties and hangovers, more stuff? The Lord Jesus offers a more meaningful “more” - more love, more joy, more peace, more hope.
Although the busyness of life and the plethora of entertainment options can distract the human heart, they don’t fill its emptiness. We were made to find joy in honouring God - that is where a truly full life is discovered. But there is no path to honouring God apart from faith in the Lord Jesus (John 5:23). Sin has twisted our nature so that we naturally have an inward bent, a self-centred perspective, which is inherently harmful to ourselves and to society. And because this brokenness is caused by sin, it is a problem we cannot repair ourselves, nor can we fill the emptiness ourselves - we need a Saviour. When Jesus Christ fills the heart, He repairs what is broken inside of us, because He is the One that was sent from heaven to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Easter is a time of year when the world around us seems full of life - nature is rising out of the cold, death grip of winter and beginning to live life to the full again! But Easter is also the time of year that should point us to the fullness of life that the Lord Jesus uniquely provides. He said, “I lay down My life that I may take it again… I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:17-18). And it was at this very time of year that He laid down His life for our sins (Good Friday), and then displayed His power over death by rising again from the dead (Easter Sunday). Would you like to live life to the full? Then accept the abundant life that the Lord Jesus provides by trusting Him as your Saviour. “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12).
Written by Matthew Cain
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version.