Daily Devotional

I was trained as a teacher and a coach.  It took six years to complete a BA, and an MA and secure a teaching credential.  Trained in physical education, biology, and coaching basketball.  Six years, plus another year of military training.

But five years more would pass before Lynn and I got saved.  We came back to the valley, settling in Reedley, and working at Reedley HS.  Then six additional years before I came to know what all the life, training, and experience of 35 years was for.

I was called as a pastor.  It was like discovering for the first time who I really was.  Lynn and I stepped forth to the job with both joy and passion.  I knew the great things the Lord had done in me, and how He had taught me.  I knew what I was supposed to teach.

What I did not know was the low estate of many in the church!  It was a very good church, with mainly young, healthy families.  It was nearly a model church life and remains a standard hard to match.  But pastors soon find out more than they ever wanted to know.

I was shocked by the things shared in the privacy of my office.  Old, grave sins of the past, still festering.  Weaknesses which people persisted in clinging to.  Damage done by others to them, still like a littered street where an auto accident had just occurred.  Many confessions I will have to take to my grave, devastating but shared in confidence.

Such poor spiritual health and wholeness is not what we are forever cursed with.  In fact, the very opposite is true.  We have been called to be radiant believers, like well-watered gardens, people whose souls are filled with abundance and who are satisfied with God’s goodness that is theirs in Christ.

Consider the picture painted by God in this passage from Jeremiah, describing what was ahead for His people returning from Babylon, after 70 years of exile.

“They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion,
And they will be radiant over the bounty of the Lord—
Over the grain and the new wine and the oil,
And over the young of the flock and the herd;
And their life will be like a watered garden,
And they will never languish again.
Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance,
And the young men and the old, together,
For I will turn their mourning into joy
And will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.
I will fill (saturate) the soul of the priests with abundance,
And My people will be satisfied with My goodness,”
declares the Lord.  
Jeremiah 31:12–14

This passage has several applications.  First, it is the description of what the exiles could expect when they returned to Jerusalem.  Second, it is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth.  But third, it is the picture of the glory of the soul life laid up for every believer in Jesus Christ.  

It does not mean that all the externals will be perfect.  We all know that even the very best of the saints in Christ face issues, problems, afflictions, and even persecution.  But it does mean that there is available for you, in the midst of all that, an inner life which is a well-watered garden.

It is for all whose lives are bound up in Christ.  I tell you because I want you to know what is yours in Jesus.  Consider again these three verses, among hundreds which say the same thing.  What can the inner life, and marriage and family, and church, and ministry and being a citizen look like?

It can look like this:

• They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion.
• They will be radiant over the bounty of the Lord—grain, new wine, oil, the young of the flock & herd.
• Their lives will be like well-watered gardens.
• They will never languish again.
• The virgin will rejoice in the dance, the young man and the old together.
• God will turn their mourning into joy.
• God will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.
• God will fill (saturate) the soul of the priests with abundance (we are all priests).
• God’s people will be satisfied with His goodness.

This is the heritage of all believers in Christ.  Sadly, some will not believe.  Others prefer to live in spiritual poverty, for a myriad of unhealthy reasons.  But many others see this life laid before them, and step forward to take hold of it!

Do you have it?  Will you have it?  Paul told Timothy to take hold of the eternal life to which he was called (I Timothy 6:12).  Jesus declared that we would know the truth, and that the truth would make us free (John 8:32).  He came that we might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).

Is all this a description of your life?  It is yours for the taking, in Him.  And it is yours to help others claim and experience in fullness.

It is out of such a life we accomplish the kingdom.  It is hard to give what we do not have!  We know others can have joy because we have it, and know how it came (John 15:11).  We love because He first loved us (I John 4:19).  We have peace because we have learned how to be anxious for nothing (Philippians 4:6–7).  

Do not live another day in poverty of soul.  You were called to really live, and rejoice.  To be all glorious within (Psalm 45:13).  To be a well-watered garden.  To have a soul saturated with God’s abundance.  To be satisfied with His goodness.

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation