Message(MSG) rendering of John 10:10 says that Jesus came to give
us “more and better life than [we] ever dreamed of.”
To live a frail, tentative, unfulfilled life is a blatant insult to the
God who calls us to rejoice. To become a frantic, hurried, half-full
being is a slap in the face of our Savior who died to give us more—
more joy. More reason to rejoice. More hope. More prayer. More life
itself.
A joyful, abundant, and prayerful life will not happen automati-
cally. We must choose it for ourselves. How do we go about choos-
ing such a life? We could, perhaps, choose to celebrate one thing
every day: large or small, outlandish or ordinary. It doesn’t matter.
The important thing is to prayerfully honor the Lord by living the
fulfilling life he died to give us.
We could get an “abundance notebook” in which we daily write
one way to rejoice and be glad in him. We could have one child in
the family plan the menu one day of each week and help prepare his
or her favorite foods. We could sing hymns or favorite songs with
family or friends. We could invite a different couple or single people
over to lunch after church once a month. We could take nature
walks with our children or grandchildren, collecting interesting
rocks, leaves, wildflowers, and the like, rejoicing in God’s creation.
We could study a foreign country with several families in church or
in the neighborhood by checking out travel videos from the library
and planning a party with costumes and food from that region. We
could take an art class. We could walk with a friend for exercise
every morning. We could begin a prayer group in the neighborhood,
begin to use a prayer journal, or find a prayer partner who will join
us in jump-starting the day with five minutes of prayer on the tele-
phone every morning.
Do you know who “the thief” is and what he’s up to? Jesus will be
glad to tell you. In John 10:10 Jesus also said that the thief comes
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