the good life

Sometimes a new convert is told that life will be good with Jesus as their Lord.  This statement is true but it will require some explaining because problems are on their way.
 
John 10:10 A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy.  I came so you can have real and eternal life, more and better life than you ever dreamed of.
 
Jesus came to give us life so good, we can’t even dream about it because it is not confined to the soulish realm.  No man can imagine how good life with Jesus can be, no one will know it until they live it.
 
Romans 8:32 He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.
 
Why is God so generous with all the free stuff?  Because we are His kids and He loves us.  This is how it was in the beginning.  God put His son Adam in a beautiful garden, then gave him dominion and gave him seed.  Adam could have whatever he wanted and as much of it as he wanted.  Poverty, sickness and lack was never part of God’s plan for man.  When Adam disobeyed and let the devil into our world, he immediately began to kill, destroy and steal.  Adam released the curse into our world and the curse makes life hard and most times unbearable.  As long as the curse has a place in our lives, we will struggle to live the life Jesus died to give us.
 
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into Himself.  As the Scripture says, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.
 
God would not stand by and let the devil rob His children of all the things He gave them.  As Jesus hung on the cross, the Father had no choice but to put all the curse on His Son.  God did what any loving Father would do, He laid down His life for His children.  Now if we believe Jesus redeemed us from the curse, then we can accept the life Jesus died to give us.  Life can be better than what we have imagined but we will need to resist the devil.  The devil hates God and he hates us because God loves us and wants to give us the good life.  The devil was created in Heaven and he will never see the place ever again but we will.  The devil is not content unless he is making us miserable. 
 
James 4:7 Submit yourselves to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
 
The word submit means to obey.  If the devil is made to know that you are sold out to God, he will move down the road.  How do we resist the devil?  We submit (obey) to God and do nothing the devil tells us.  People everywhere are saying how glad they are that 2020 is gone, they are saying it was the worst year ever.  I don’t know what they are talking about, I enjoyed the blessings of the Lord all year long.  I tuned the devil out and did everything the Lord said to do.  Most of the time I wasn’t even aware of the devil.  The devil was active in the political arena, in the sinners camp and among the unbelieving believers.  I gave him no place, no invitation.  If we are going to live the life Jesus made for us, then we must be willing to contend for it.  When we fight the good fight of faith we win.

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