The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

—JOHN 10:10 (NASB)

If any single phrase of Scripture is meant to capture the essence of what our experience with Christ is meant to be like, abundant life says it better than anything else, in twelve little power-packed letters.

Most of us believe in it—in theory—in the abundant, ever-filling, overflowing life that Jesus came to offer us. We believe it’s hopefully waiting for us out there somewhere, at some point…if we could ever get past this bump in the road. If we could ever just feel better for a long enough stretch of time. If we could put this circumstance behind us, or pay our car off, or get through this wedding, or find steady work, or lose the weight we’re struggling with. We think if we can just make it till the end of this year and turn the corner on a new one, we’ll be ready for it. We can see it out there, once we’re not so tied up with what’s here. Abundant life, here we come…if.

It turns out, however, abundant life is not something you experience in the absence of difficult, trying, challenging situations. Abundant life is what Jesus offers you right in the middle of them. Abundant life is something the Spirit enables you to have when all else is wrong, disheveled, or uneasy around you. This, in fact, is the state in which His abundance is best seen and experienced.

“The thief”—the Devil—is bent on using difficulties to “steal” from you, to “kill and destroy” your peace and confidence, so that you’re consistently waiting on abundance if and when things change. His sinister tactic keeps you focused on all that is wrong, blinded to your current access to abundance. And yet because of Christ and your intimate relationship with Him, your heart—your entire life—can still be overwhelmed with an inexplicable, simultaneous hope and peace-filled stability, even when all else is disheveled around you.

Abundant life is the smile that creeps to the corners of your lips when God fills your heart with a peace that runs contrary to your reality. Abundant life is the sense of divine adventure that pulsates in your soul, even while you’re sitting in a square, gray cubicle doing a job that comes nowhere close to tapping your potential. As soon as you tap into the available, Spirit-empowered reservoir that is a fountain of living water bubbling up inside, He raises a banner of hope in your heart and mind. As you trust Him to do this, something called abundant life actually shows up, right in the middle of the dreariness.

Your marriage may be hanging by a thread; your finances may be a disaster; your child may be living a reckless, rebellious lifestyle; your doctor may have shown you an X-ray you never wanted to see with your name on it. But your God is here. Your God is able. And He offers abundant life, ready to be brought to the regular rhythms of your life right now, in this, in you.

Believe it.

And live in light of it today.

In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.