“I have given you life and I want you to live that life abundantly. I have called you to live it passionately as Jesus did, not with minimal enthusiasm for it or mild involvement in My ways. Your days are full of choices; your years are numbered according to My will. You are on a tailor-made and very personal adventure planned by Me.

"Most of you miss the joy of your journey. You see challenges as threats rather than opportunities for Us to strategize together. You long for the highs and miss the wonder of learning to trust in Me when in the valley. You hope rather than know that My Word is true. You settle for morsels of what I have available. You struggle to maintain control, when absolute surrender to Me and My plans would bring you freedom. Your days are dull and mundane, rather than full of the exuberant life that Jesus lived. He understood how much His life and your life in Him meant to Me. He shared My desires rather than inventing His own to maintain His safety.

"I want you to shake off all of the foolish reasons you have for not becoming deeply involved in My plan for you, no matter what the cost might be to you. I want you to begin to live wondrously, full of the heart of My Holy Spirit. Stop settling for less than I have for you.”

 Hos. 2:14-15a AMP 

14) Therefore, behold, I will allure her [Israel] and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart.

15) There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope and expectation…

Rev. 3:19 AMP

Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude].

Somehow we have believed the lie that things such as comfort, the world’s definition of success, and a life without challenges and heartaches are more important than an intimate relationship with our Lord. We seek the visible comforts rather than understanding that whatever causes us to need Him, to come to Him, to wait for Him or to rest in Him alone are what give us true wealth and an abundant life. We miss how God is working to fulfill our days and pattern our lives after the abundant life of Jesus when we look only for the mountain tops, ignoring the opportunities for growth and intimacy in the valleys. We miss the joy of the journey while waiting for the comforts of our flesh.

Let me find Your abundant life in every aspect of my days, Lord,

Jim Corbett