9. Participating in the Kingdom with Jesus brings me great joy and abundance.
(Before looking at the questions below, take a few minutes to think about this statement. Invite Jesus to speak to you about what He would like you to notice.)
The Christian life is often portrayed as one of suffering, sacrifice, and service. Does the abundance that Jesus talks about seem inconsistent with this picture? If so, how would you resolve the inconsistency?
Is it possible to experience joy while suffering, peace in sacrifice, and contentment while serving? Have you experienced this? What makes it possible?
When you imagine life with God in His Kingdom, what seems good, full, valuable, rich, desirable, and beneficial to you?
Is there anything that makes it difficult for you to participate in God’s Kingdom life?
Our choices are usually motivated by what we believe the outcomes of our choices will be. So what we imagine about life with God in His Kingdom will play a big role in our choice of whether to pursue this Kingdom life. Although there are many things about God’s Kingdom that we may not know,
it’s certain that life with God in His Kingdom is good, abundant, joyful, hopeful, and much more. The Scriptures paint a consistent picture of God desiring and creating goodness for humanity. The garden of Eden was a perfectly good place for humanity to dwell. When God called Moses to lead the people of God into Canaan, His earthly Kingdom, God describes the goodness of this place. And
Jesus describes the Kingdom as bringing abundance and fullness of life. The nature of God’s Kingdom, from that garden paradise before humanity’s fall, to the material Kingdom of Israel, and the spiritual Kingdom of Jesus may have changed, but the characteristics of the Kingdom, its goodness and abundance have remained consistent.
If we lack this goodness and abundance, it is not because God’s Kingdom has suffered. More likely, it is because we have too low of an expectation of our Kingdom life and have settled for something less than it could be.