I Am Not A Victim: The Christian Life Is An Abundant Life

And as we yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit, God dresses us like this, in all these beautiful attributes of character. He makes us more and more like His son Jesus, overflowing with love and faithfulness. That is our calling.

And when you look at an abundant life, I think yes it does mean outer things, friendships, relationships, food, shelter, safety, freedom, work, and funds, but it is just as much internal characteristics that God is fashioning in us.

He takes the most lowly sinners, people who steal, slander others, cheat, skip out on paying taxes, download internet music illegally, people who if we saw a woman being attacked, we’d just keep walking, people who stole money from their parents or friends to buy drugs or booze, people who had no character and no values whatsoever, and he makes them into shining heroes, princes of the kingdom of God, heroes of the faith, people of character, people of honor, people who go from stealing someone's wallet and then help them look around their house for it, to someone who see a twenty dollar bill on the ground behind an old lady, and are excited to pick it up and chase after the old lady and give it back to her. People who are accidentally mailed a Christmas card with money in it, and it came to the wrong address, so we mail it to the right address, leave the money in it, and pay for the postage ourselves.

As much as we are the Christmas tree surrounded by presents, maybe the most beautiful part of being a Christian is seeing how God decorates us with all new character and beliefs and a desire to do good when no one is looking.

I want to read for you a scripture the Lord gave me from the book of Deuteronomy, this is the book Jesus most often quoted from, but in this scripture it talks about how if we do diligently follow the Lord we’ll be blessed in all these different ways, but it also says, that if we don’t, and we turn away and do our own thing, well there will be many curses.

It says Deuteronomy 28:1-19: “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.