How long have you believed in Christ: six months, a year, five or twenty years?  Has your life changed?  Is it more sanctified and did you get rid of a bad habit?  Is your pursuit in life more God-centred or are you more concerned about your personal feelings and needs?  Are you longing more of the presence of the Lord than the gratification derived from material belongings or people?  When you are suffering, can you focus and depend on the Lord, continue to do the things that please Him that you may enjoy the peace that surpasses understanding?  Are you more patient, loving, more forgiving and compassionate?  Are you wiser in making decisions and relating to others?  Has your relationship with your colleagues and superiors improved?

In the following spiritual disciplines listed, how many of them have you accomplished?  Do you keep your daily devotion (reading the Bible and prayer) faithfully and attend Sunday Worship regularly?  Have you read through the whole Bible once?  Are you able to recite word perfect 25 verses and their Scripture references?  Did you bring a person to Christ and strengthen the spiritual life of a weak Christian such that he is still faithfully following the Lord?

If you have believed in the Lord and experienced His grace but have not progressed much in your faith, you are like a little boy who is clutching on to a big bag that contains dollar notes worth a million dollars.  Yet he is starving, has to beg and is bullied.  The fact is that he does not need to live this way because this little boy is a millionaire.  In the same way, the very moment you believe in the Lord, you become a child of the almighty and glorious God who inherits the multi-billion empire of the Heavenly Father.  How can this person be a spiritual pauper?  No.  You can enjoy the all surpassing peace of God and blessings that are beneficial to you.  You can bear fruits of life, 30, 60 and 100 folds. Your life should become a beautiful garden.  I do not mean that you will be free from illness, be affluent or that you will become a top scholar and has no suffering.  Such are unrealistic expectations of life.

What I mean is that even in this brutally real world where painful things happen to you, your life still overflows with vitality and life.  This is as Paul says: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16).  This is called an abundant life because it can face adversity.  The ability to overcome sufferings in life reveals the eternal life within us, the omnipotent power of God.  Every Christian, whether you are just a new believer or one of many years, should be able to enjoy this amazing life.

Nevertheless, why is it that some Christians do not experience such a life?  In the parable of the sower, Jesus highlighted two facts.  First, when people hear the gospel, the good gospel seed is planted in their life but it cannot bear fruit.  That is because some things stifle the life of the seed.  This thing could be that the person’s heart does not desire and has no appetite for God’s Word.  Consequently, the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts (Luke 8:12).  It could also be that he fears and worries too much about the needs and sufferings in the world (Luke 8:13).  He could also be too focused on riches and pleasures (Luke 8:14).  If you have not grown spiritually, one of these factors must have choked the life of the gospel seed and thus prevent it from bearing fruit in your life.

Second, how can your life blossom into a beautiful garden, filled with the exuberance to overcome the afflictions of life?  You must have a “noble and good heart” (Luke 8:15).  That refers to people “who hear the word [and] retain it” in the heart such that in the face of all sorts of adversities, this person will persevere to abide by what God has commanded.  If you are willing to forsake all that hold you back from obeying God, the Lord promises you that you will be bearing fruit a hundredfold: Your life will be a real blessing to yourself and others.  Therefore, I urge you, believe in God, despise the benefits that the world and people have to offer you, pursue the Lord and know and obey God’s Word.