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ings; tha t, when his glory shall be
revealed, ye may be glad a lso with
exceeding joy."
Why
We
Can
Always
Be
Happy
lnside
B
lessed be the God an d
Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to
his abundan! merey hath
begotten us again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, to an inheritance in–
corruptible, and undefiled" (1 Pet.
1
:3).
There isn' t one person in 10,000
professing Christians who really
knows and understands what that
incorruptible ínheritance really is.
lt
is far greater- filled with fa r more
splendor and glory, and fa r more
happiness- than you probably ever
imagined. Tha t is what is in store for
you if you will surrender your life to
God. It 's up to you!
Pe ter continues. saying that we
a re kept by the power of God
through fai th unto salvation, ready
"to be revealed at the last time."
That means a time ye t future, a head
of us just now, only a few years
future in our time, at the second
coming of Christ. Jesus Christ is
coming back to this earth once
again!
"Wherein," continues this scrip–
ture, "ye greatly rejoice, though now
for a season, if need be, ye a re in
heaviness through manifold tempta–
tions" or trials and troubles that
come upon us: "that the tria! of
your fa ith, being much more pre–
cious than of gold that perisheth"–
because this tria! of our faith is de–
velopi ng character that will never
perish. lt's more valuable than gold.
When a trouble comes upon you.
ins t ead of griping, g rumblin g,
moaning, and being unhappy and
miserable about it , rea lize th a t
some thing is come upon you to try
you, to develop character, to de–
velop something real and genuine in
you th a t you will carry with you for
all eternity.
But when troubles come. do you
rejoice in them? Do you reali ze that
some thing is come tha t is more
va luable to you than a great sum of
gold? Or do you grumble and com–
plain and wish that such things had
never come?
Jesus Christ carne so th at our li ves
12
should be
changed
from what they
are. They are to be cha nged from
drifting, going the easy way, acting
according to impulse-which builds
no character, which is putting noth–
ing into us tha t we can take with us,
nothing tha t is real, tha t is Jasting
and permanent- to the life that
finds the true values. He gives us a
life that does meet and overcome
obstacles and temptations, a life
that is just filled with happiness,
brimful and running over wi th joy,
the real abundant life. We realize
wha t is being accomplished. where
we're going. You have a goal if you
are Christ's. You have an objective.
You know where you' re going; you
see the progress you' re making.
lt
gives you a thrill of happiness.
Material Blesslngs, Too
And, incidentally, if your Jife is the
right kind that God desires. which is
for your good, if you seek first the
Kingdom of God, which is your ob–
jective in Ii fe-or should be-and
His righteousness, the right ways of
life, He says tha t a ll these material
things shall be added.
God, perhaps, may not add mate–
rial things ea rly in Jife. He may not
add them right away.
It
~ay
be
sorne little time. but He will give
you all the ma terial goods and nec–
essities that you really need, and
even a great many of the luxuries, if
your life pleases Him. Yes, you can
have those things when you know
how to possess them and how to use
them.
What is an abundant life? What is
abundance? Here is the definition :
"possessing an overftowing full–
ness."
It
means grea t plenty-grea t
plenty of life and real living.
It
means exube r ance. It mean s
abounding. That's the kind of life
tha t Jesus Christ carne to reveal that
we could have.
Not very many people under–
stand it. Not very many people un–
derstand what real Christianity is.
Not very many professing Chris–
tians know wha t a real Christian life
is. They're making themselves so
unnecessarily unhappy.
The true Christian life. then, pos–
sesses an overftowing fullness of the
things that are the fruits of the Spirit
of God- an . overftowing fullness of
LOVE·
(it's
God's
!ove, it 's a genuine,
spirituallove), a fullness of
JOY,
and
of
P EACE,
and of
faith,
of
meekness,
of
remperance.
Does
vouR
life pos–
sess those things? Have those things
come into your life to fill you?
1 know that you fall a great deal
short of all of that. Everybody does.
We al/
still fall short. But that 's our
goal! That is the life that we sha ll
live in th e Kíngdom of God. Th a t is
the lifc that we should strive for,
and with God's help, we can gradu–
ally grow more and more into it.
That is the challenging life we
grow into. the life of God's Spirit
wíthin
us-rhar
is the
HAPPY
life.
thar
is the
JOYOUS
life, and the
ABUNDANT
tife.
The abundant life must be a life
tha t has abundant
RESOURCES.
l f
you have these resources, they have
to come from somewhere, because if
you look within, you wi ll find that
they a re not there! We have sorne
resources within. but they fall far.
far short from the kind of abundant
living that Christ reveals and l 'm
telling you about. You don ' t have
this kind of resources within a nd
you can' t obta in them from the
"around."
Look a round you. You can' t ob–
tain them from o ther people be–
cause they don' t possess these things
ei ther.
God Above ls the Source
W
e can have abun–
ant resources if we
now where to go to
ain those resou rces.
But ma terial wealth does no t give
anyone those resources.
It
can only
add to them.
You don ' t have them
wirhin.
You
can't gct them from the
around.
But
you can receive them only from the
above, from God Almighty. God
Almighty is the great Giver, not
on ly of life, but of life more abun–
dantly. God is the Giver of the great
resources. He is the Almighty.
God Almighty has a great dea l of
power to give you, to impart into
you. You can receive from Him
abundant
FAITH,
the resource of
POWER,
fa ith to dríve out fear and
worry, faith to drive out discour–
agement before obstacles, to know
that it's going to work out every
problem;
power
where you are now
weak, to give you !ove to cover up
The
PLAIN TRUTH October-November 1977