Jesus is says in Matthew 11, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
In John 10, Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life and might have it abundantly.”
In Luke 9, Jesus says, “If anyone wants to become my follower he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.”
Jesus is calling us to Himself so that we might swap the worries and troubles of the world for abundant life. The essence of abundant life is Jesus Himself. “And this is eternal life, that you may know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.” The joy, satisfaction, and abundant life is knowing God. Abundant life is not found in the gifts that God gives us nor in the peaceful circumstances He often affords, i.e. the absence of trials and suffering. The ultimate joy and satisfaction in life for the believer is found in our relationship with God.
Unfortunately many believers are confused thinking that abundant life is equivalent to the gifts of God. If God blesses us with material things, a nice healthy family, a life without severe trial and suffering, we are content with this “abundant life.” This is absolutely false. And even for those believers who know better, their joy and satisfaction most likely still come from God’s gifts and the peaceful circumstances of life. Why do we find it so difficult to derive our joy and satisfaction from knowing Him? The knowledge (of finding satisfaction in God) is often in the head, but the reality is far from the heart.
There are likely many facets to this issue. Perhaps a key facet is addiction to the world. As believers we are addicted the finer things of this world, e.g. cars, homes, fashion, gadgets. We are addicted to worldly pleasures, sex, physical beauty. We are addicted status, power, man’s approval. We are addicted to earthly comfort and external peace, human relationships, family relationships, vacations. We find it impossible to break these addictions for they give us joy, satisfaction, and life. To us as believers, these are the essence of a blessed life. We’re hooked on them. How many of us found it impossible not to continue our family gatherings during the current pandemic? Even at the risk of contracting Covid-19 we continued these gatherings? Because of these worldly addictions, we’ve never “tasted and seen that the Lord is good.” I’m certainly not saying nor even implying that all of these things to which we are addicted are intrinsically bad. Many of them are not. But as is often the case, the good often usurps the best. If the enemy can get you to focus more on family and find more joy in these relationships than in your relationship with Jesus, he has won a key battle.
In order to taste the goodness of Jesus, we have to deny self, we have to die to self. Breaking an addiction can be terribly difficult. The difficulty is not in Jesus’ demands. He says my yoke is easy and My burden is light. The difficultly lies in weaning ourselves from the world so that we might commune with God. Once we make the break, we shall discover that “in His presence is fullness of joy; in His right hand are pleasures forevermore.” God’s gifts are wonderful. A peaceful long vacation is heavenly! However, these things pale in comparison to the joy and satisfaction of knowing God. Furthermore, these earthly things are temporal and can easily be taken away. Knowing God is eternal life . . . and it cannot be take away. It cannot be taken away by death, by angels, by heavenly authorities, by things present, by things to come, by powers, by height, depth, or any created thing. We must be aware of the tempting counterfeits all around us, the “drugs” of this world that are highly addictive. To break the addiction, it will require a dying to self. Once recovered, we shall know true joy and satisfaction. The human soul was created by God to savor His presence and to be completely satisfied in knowing Him.
Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come. 