Have you ever been so unhappy, you wished you could die? Not to kill yourself, of course. I mean that you just didn’t want to be here anymore! When life gets hard, who has not wished they could just go somewhere and leave it all behind? In one of his Psalms, David expressed it like this: “O, that I had wings of a dove, I would fly away and be at rest.”
Even the great apostle Paul, when imprisoned in Rome, said it would be better to die so he could be with the Lord. And when listing the many trials he had to endure through his life, Paul said he had “despaired of life.”
This “death wish” is a natural human response when things get ‘over our heads’. As a counselor for 25 years, I have met many persons who felt this way, even some who were suicidal.
What people mean is that they want to escape their painful circumstances. And many have turned away from God: in anger! Who has not felt this way?
And it is not just the big things in life that cause us to feel this way. We are angry because the paper was late this morning; the toilet stopped up again; the car needed to go in the shop for the third time this month. And we say, “I would rather die than live like this.” Wait a minute, you say! What’s wrong with wanting these things? My friend, that is the wrong question! The question is not whether it is wrong to want these things. The real question is: what will you do when you don’t get them? What will you do with your disappointment and anger?
This is the point of this webiste.
The thing you must give up, or die to, is this: insisting on your own way. This is what it means to die to self. Jesus said, unless a grain of wheat…dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears MUCH fruit. Jesus meant that you cannot be alive to this abundant life He offers unless you are willing to die to your own. When you give up your right to be in charge of your own life, that is, be your own god, you allow God to be God. And the life that He will give you is marked by contentment and peace instead of anger and depression.
Jesus suffered and died and then rose up to be seated at the right hand of His father where He lives a glorious eternal life. He extends that life to us right now – in time. It is called Abundant Life. *Jesus invited you to have it, but you have to die to experience it. He calls you to deny yourself, to pick up your cross and follow Him. Picking up your cross means you are taking your place with Jesus, to die to your own will.
Jesus said “I can do nothing on my own…” Why should it be any different for you and me?
Dietrich Bonheoffer says “when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” There can be no full receiving of this “new” life while we are unwilling to let go of the “old.”
Are you hungry for more of God? Are you eager to have the abundant life that Jesus offered? Are you dying to live the abundant life?
Jesus said: I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
Through pertinent articles written by Dr. Greg Burts and some of his favorite authors and teachers, you may read more about this “dying to live abundant life” truth. And this is why Greg has written his book Are You Dying to Live the Abundant Life?.
Greg writes a daily blog called Dying to Live
May God bless your journey to Abundant Living!