I don’t have to tell you that there is an epidemic of anxiety in our world today. You know it and I know it.
I’m not talking about a diagnosable, physiological condition. If that is you, this will be helpful, but please do not feel called out as faithless because you have that battle. But please, read on.
I’m talking about the kind of anxiety that is a cultural normality now. I have experienced anxiety attacks, for the first time in my life, over the past 24 months. I’m talking about anxiety, despair, a restless and relentless sense that all is not well, etc.
What strikes me is that Jesus promised something totally different to us: Abundant Life - a full and fulfilling life. He promised the exact opposite of what so many of us are experiencing these days.
We love Jesus and we welcome Him as Lord of our lives - and yet we frequently, and maybe even consistently, feel anxious, afraid, and overwhelmed.
What gives?
What I offer here is not expert analysis, but personal witness and testimony. I am finding victory and consistent abundance in my soul and I want you to as well.
First things first: Abundance in Jesus is a promised fact. It is, in fact, available to us. That is not a pipe dream or an experience reserved only for a few. It is intended to be the reality for all who call on Jesus with a whole heart. But; and if you read my stuff often you know how I love big “buts”; abundance must be applied to our lives. We must participate in the abundance of Jesus and His Spirit in us.
This is not an availability of resource issue. It is a consistency of participation issue. We have been baptized into Christ Jesus and the invitation, yeah command, is to abide in Him so that we can bear much fruit. Any branch that does not abide in the vine dies from malnutrition - and malnutrition might be the perfect description for what so many of us are actually experiencing in our soul.
Nourishing resources do you no good if you don’t pick them up and eat them.
And the secret to experiencing these resources for the soul? Abiding in Jesus through the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Consider these descriptions from Jesus:
“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:37-39)
To the woman at the well: Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”” (John 4:13-14)
““Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
And God, through the Prophet Jeremiah, perfectly diagnosed the breakdown we are experiencing: ““My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)
I will write more about the practices of abiding in Jesus and drinking deeply of the river of life, but for now I encourage you to do this exercise: Get alone in a quiet place with no distractions and no technology. Quiet your mind and breathing. Imagine Jesus in the space with you, enjoying you enjoying Him. Tell Him that you are thirsty and you have come to Him to drink. Ask for the living water to flow from your inmost being and for the Holy Spirit to preside over your mind and heart and emotions. Thank Him for His faithfulness to do so and enjoy His Presence and work for a few minutes.
I have become convinced that the difference maker for followers of Jesus today is this very real practice of participating in Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, and drinking deeply of His abiding Presence and peace.
Come on in! The water is fine!