Abundance

Jesus tells us in John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

This word creates many images in our minds. More money, more stuff, more house, nicer car, these might be some of the first things that pop up. What about better health, a better job or career, amazing vacations. How about time, how does that figure into abundance? Time is becoming much more important to me as I am getting older and time is getting more scarce.

This verse speaks to me that Jesus wants us to have abundance in every area of our lives. Another version of this verse says "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Full means that there is no more room, that our lives cannot contain more. How can that be? There is always room for more stuff, a bigger house, more things. What if these are not even important aspects of abundance?

What if Jesus means that we can have full and rich relationship with him? What if abundance is regarding the relationships we have with our spouse, our kids, our parents, our friends?

I believe that it means all of these things. But I also believe that these areas of abundance should be looked at from God's perspective. Fullness of relationship with Him has to come first. What's next? Didn't Jesus demonstrate that relationships we the most important things to him? How important is stuff if we truly have fulness of relationship with those in our life? It might reorder our priorities.

What do you think?