A LIFE WORTH LIVING

If someone offers you a rich and satisfying life, what would that look like to you? Do you picture a life that serves your desires and interests? Is it an ideal life with things always turning out the way you want? Or is it one without suffering sickness, setbacks and shocks?

Jesus promised us a rich and satisfying life in John 10:10 (NLT). He even defined it as ‘My purpose’ and contrasted it with the thief’s purpose to steal, kill and destroy us. His counterpoint draws our attention to a hostile reality that attacks the ‘rich and satisfying life’ that He offers. In fact, the thief’s goals are diametrically opposed to God’s promise and power to give us a rich and satisfying life. The truth is that there is a thief whose very existence and mission is to steal, kill and destroy effective Christian living.

Don’t think of Satan as a harmless cartoon character with a red suit and a pitchfork. 

He is very clever and powerful, and his unchanging purpose

is to defeat God’s plans at every turn – including His plans for your life.

Billy Graham

If one day our life flashes before our eyes, would it be one that is worth watching? According to God’s promise, that is a resounding yes! But how can we be sure that our lives, extraordinary in its unfolding, and replete with missteps, mistakes and blind spots, will turn out to be one that is as cringeworthy as it is worth watching?

To be sure, most of us are sincere about what we can do to make our lives worth living. We are, however, less mindful of who we are constantly up against. Jesus warned us to be aware of a thief who is shrewd and sly. The devil, in all his ruse and disguise, is an adversary who brilliantly manipulates our emotions and reasoning to hoodwink us into believing that we, not him, are our worst enemies. Let’s not be fooled: he is neither a cute caricature or a paper tiger.

However, we are not left helpless to succumb to the enemy’s schemes to take us down. Jesus offered us the promise of a counterstrategy in John 10:10b, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Let’s zoom in for a closer look at the enemy’s perennial and primary intent to steal, kill and destroy effective Christian living.

TO STEAL

The devil’s very nature is to steal from us, right under our noses. He achieves this by convincing us to rely on a rationality based on the power of reasoning rather than turning to God and trusting Him for better outcomes that He alone can create. He steals hope by diluting our faith in a miracle-working and promise-keeping God. He lulls us into inertia when, instead of praying for God’s intervention according to His promises, we accept an unhealthy status quo.

Instead of enjoying rest and restfulness, a right state of mind, healthy relationships with open communications, we experience stagnation, a failure to thrive, and a chronic state of anxiety, frustration, and confusion.

He even convinces us to keep up an outward appearance of looking good while feeling bad so no one would suspect what is really going on inside us, and to fill the spiritual and emotional void in our lives with activities. As we let the enemy steal from us, we will begin to slide into a life that falls short of God’s promises for us. 

TO KILL

Jesus highlighted in John 10:10 that the enemy has an unwavering mission and purpose that is antagonistic to His promise to give believers a life that is full. His archrival is out to get all who believes in Him and he often appeals to our sense of self-sacrifice by luring us to over-commit our time to endless duties while losing sight of our mental well-being and spiritual growth.

The devil even operates in church to mislead keen believers to commit sacrificially to misguided causes, and convince them that it is what God wants them to do and that it pleases Him. In fact, to the unsuspecting ones who are eager to please, he needs to do very little persuading if it is presented as a religious duty. But even as they try to do what is needed and what seems right, fulfillment eludes them. Gradually, they experience more guilt than growth, and eventually, a perfunctory existence replaces a purpose-driven life.

When the conditions that promote health and life are consistently absent, it leads to a decline in well-being and ultimately, a slow demise of faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Over time, we begin to tolerate mediocrity over excellence, we give tokenistic nods to the Word of God instead of seeking a deeper understanding of it, and we become easy prey to the enemy’s traps to ensnare us. 

TO DESTROY

In case anyone thinks that you will be spared, let’s be clear that the devil is impartial to all in his mission to destroy lives: he doesn’t target only Christians but all humans. As believers, however, we know his scheme is to steal the promises of God from our lives, snuff out whatever degree of hope, faith and love he finds in our hearts, and ruin us so we will not rise to the full potential that God has created in us.

His goal is to derail and demoralize sincere believers, diffuse our passion, and sabotage our advancement of God’s love, redemption and salvation while making it appear like our personal failures. Within the community of faith, he artfully traps us in siloes and echo chambers to numb our sensitivity to God’s voice.

Instead of praying and believing God to orchestrate transformations in our life and ministry, he wants us to give in and tolerate unreasonable behaviour, to give up on relationships, to stop dreaming dreams, and to play religion instead of enjoying a real relationship with God and authentic fellowships with others in the community of faith.

Make no mistake that the enemy is on a single-minded mission to see believers reach a finale where they will be ruined and undone. He destroys not by any singular act but by a steady process of undoing all that we do to follow Jesus wholeheartedly and live a godly life. To say the devil is in the details is not a joke, for he pays greater attention to the details of our lives than we would like to think.

Whoever you are, the devil’s plan is to obliterate you so that you will not rise again. But remember – life is worth living because Jesus has come to give us a life that’s rich and satisfying!

Reflect and analyze your response to these questions:

What has the enemy been stealing from you (a deficiency that you put up with)? 

What have you let the devil kill inside you (a desire you have long given up on)?

In what ways have you been deprived of the ‘rich and satisfying life’ that Jesus promised you in John 10:10 (NLT)?