Abundant life Archives - Pastor Terry Lema's Daily Devotions

While we are considered a rich nation, we must honestly admit that there are many people in our society who are “just getting by.” They live marginally. Finances are tight or fixed. Housing options are limited. Health problems dominate their lives. Some do not have good medical care. Some are lonely or isolated. Some live on the very edges of acceptable society. They are “Just Getting By.” Or perhaps “Barely Getting By” would even be more appropriate a description for many.

And still, those who live marginally in our society may still be better off than the populations of many nations around this world who do not have access to even clean water or a secure, stable food system. If we look closely at our world, it may not be such “A Wonderful World” after all.

David, in writing Psalm 23, was not looking at our world, he was looking at his LORD (JEHOVAH, YAHWEH). He saw the amazing promises of God and could boldly proclaim that he lacked nothing. He acknowledged that in his LORD, he was not “just getting by.” In fact, in his LORD, he had bountiful abundance.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” [Psalm 23:5 HCSB]

David was not the only one to remind us of our richness. Jesus told us that He came to bring us not just life in place of death, but bountiful abundance in place of “just getting by.” “I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” [John 10:10b HCSB]

When we come to our LORD Christ Jesus in faith, His grace, His goodness, His love, and His mercy flood our lives with bountiful abundance. It is a promise that begins here and sees its final, eternal fulfillment when we enter into His presence! Glory!

Freedom. Tomorrow is Independence Day. Perhaps this year it will mean more to us than fireworks and picnics. Perhaps this year, 2020, we will begin to understand the price so many paid for this nation to be born.

I grew up in Pennsylvania, one of the original 13 colonies. To me, the Revolutionary War is the most intriguing event in our history. I thrived on the stories of patriots, Patrick Henry, John Paul Jones, John and Abigail Adams, Mary Draper, Samuel Adams, Esther DeBerdt Reed, John Hancock. These were men and women who sacrificed everything to bring about the end of the tyrannical rule of England and allow the colonies to be free to govern themselves.

As children we had to memorize the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. It begins: “When in the course of human events, it become necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the power of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respond to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

The next section is the one we so often hear: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

All people are created equal. Through the years we have struggled with that truth. We have gotten off course as a nation, but we have fought and died to correct the course when needed. The concepts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have never been easy to understand, nor easy to embrace, still Americans have proudly displayed their quest for them.

This is history. American history. And if you read through the early papers of the great American heroes who founded this country, you will see that they have pulled many of their truths from the Bible, and sought the Hand of their Creator God to fulfill their purpose.

“A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” [John 10:10]

Abundant life

Bountiful Abundance