We've recently gone to an apple picking and
we were so surprised by the abundance of apples in each tree.
We were worried that our kids would not be able to reach the apples.
But these apples were so abundant!
They were so many apples growing in each branch that
some of the apples were almost toward the ground
because the branches were too heavy with apples.
(And some of them were literally on the ground still intact on its branches.)
The word abundance was truly fitting to these apple trees.
They were abundantly abundant!
Could our lives in this trouble-filled world be like these abundant apple trees?
Jesus says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10)."
It is His desire that we have abundant life.
But how do we do that when our lives are filled with
challenges, sicknesses, conflicts, failures, fatigue, weariness, and tears?
Just like the apples - we must abide in Him
in order to bear fruit and have an abundant life.
John 15:16 says,
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you
that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you."
When we abide in His love and cling to the Vine,
despite the life's all the ups and downs,
we can have an abundant life,
we can -
and we will
experience soul-satisfyingly abundant life,
because of His ever present presence and love.
-ChanMi
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