An Abundant Life   

In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I came so that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.” That abundant life begins when we accept God’s marvelous gift of grace. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
This grace is bestowed upon us, as Colossians 2:12 tells us, when we are “buried with Him in baptism in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
So we’re given this wonderful life, this abundant life, this life in Jesus and because of Jesus. What are you going to do with your life now? God has washed you clean and made you His own. What comes next?
Acts 2:38 tells us we get two blessings when we are baptized into Christ: 1) we get forgiveness of all our sins; and 2) we get the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. God not only saves you from the guilt of sin, He also saves you from the power of sin. He puts His Spirit within you to help you live the abundant life He has planned for you.
In Ezekiel 36:25-27, God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
If God’s plan was for you to have a new life that was based solely upon the limits of your human abilities, then all you’d get when you were baptized would be forgiveness of sins, and then you’d be on your own. But that’s not what God has intended for you. The life He has planned for you is truly an abundant life, a life so abundant that it can only be had by putting His Holy Spirit in you to make possible things that are not possible on your own.
So receive God’s gift of grace through baptism into Christ. And then enjoy God’s gift of grace as He through His Holy Spirit works in your life to make your life abundant according to the plan He has for you. Praise God for the abundant life He gives you through His abundant grace.

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