Living in Fullness

What does a full life mean to you? Your answer may change depending on the moment, day, or according to your mood.

Occasionally our idea of a full life aligns with the Lord’s, and other times it differs quite a lot from the fullness He desires we have. Our overly busy culture tells us that a full life means every blank square on our calendar is penciled in, and that our days are scheduled from morning until night. Sometimes this is fun and gratifying, but more often, it’s quite exhausting. A full life can also mean time with family and friends, which is absolutely satisfying and fills our hearts with warmth and love. All of these are wonderful and yet God says there is something else that brings us the lasting fullness that He intends.

God knows the problem with our idea of a full life is that it’s vulnerable to change; an argument with a loved one, illness, death, financial hardships, or simply boredom—all of these can leave us feeling deflated or depleted.

Last week I shared a message on what it means to believe God. I thought I’d continue with this theme and see how the application of belief impacts the fullness of our day-to-day living.

Truly living in fullness begins with the foundational belief in who God is—holy, righteous, loving, merciful, sovereign, and kind. It is based on the irrefutable fact that His plans are best, and His purposes are good. It is grounded in Scripture as the basis for all truth. Living in the fullness of all that God has for us begins with the first baby steps of faith. It means following wherever He leads even when we don’t know all the details or understand the whole plan. We can trust that no matter where He’s taking us, it is to a place of plenty. God wants us to live in abundance with overflowing joy, optimistic hope, and settled peace and contentment, irrespective of our situation.

In the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, we read that God instructed the Israelites on the key to abundant living, and this lesson can be applied to our lives as well. He had freed them from slavery in Egypt and was leading them to a place of blessing, which is described as the land of milk and honey. (I imagine rolling green pastures where cows lazily graze and endless fields of nectar-filled flowers and buzzing bees.)

Exodus 3:8, “So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”

The Israelites’ journey was not easy; it was long and arduous, and wrought with twists and turns. They even had to contend with enemies along the way. But through it all, they believed and trusted God as He guided them through the wilderness. The Lord continually provided for all their needs, and the fullness they desired was realized in His presence. And their fullness was found through obedience to His Word.

Duet 4:40, “acknowledge, and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below. There is no other. Keep His decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you… and you may live a long time in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.”

In assessing our own fullness, we can consider these questions: Am I living within the fullness of all that God promises, or am I living on the fringes of His blessings? Am I truly stepping into and embracing all the goodness that He offers?

There are a few things that can get in the way of abundant living and keep us on the outskirts of His blessings. Busyness, bitterness, anxiety, depression, worry, fear, sin, and forgetfulness or disobedience to God, all rob us of the full life God offers. We were never meant to live under these constraints which hold us captive much like the Israelites living in Egypt. The Lord invites us to come to Him in prayer and unburden ourselves. He desires that we live in fullness and that includes living in freedom.

We can start living with a Promised Land mindset even though our pilgrimage is not yet complete. We can ask the Lord to make us aware of His presence, and to help us notice His blessings growing all around. We can ask Him to help us whole-heartedly obey His will and His ways and begin living in true fullness!

These lovely flowers grew abundantly in a London park. Evidence of God's glorious blessings bloom both in the heart of a city and in the remotest fields of the earth. Living in fullness is possible wherever we are at the moment.

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