Life to the Full

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,

I have come that you may have life,

and have it to the full.

John 10:10

I was reading this the other day and it just hit me; this truth that the Lord wants us to experience life to the full.  His plans for his adopted children are not stale and stagnant, but they are teeming with potential, with good things.  They just might not be what you thought you needed.

It's easy to wonder why our plans aren't working out like we want them to and to feel disheartened, because we don't know why God isn't allowing this "something" to happen to us or to be given to us.  Over the past several years, I have come to realize this important truth - our God is a good God, and he really does want good things for us - the best in fact.  He wants this so badly, that he often keeps us from getting that "something" that we think will make us happy and content, because he actually has something even better planned.  In my own life, I have seen how he has saved things until my heart was actually spiritually prepared for them, and other times he's changed my heart's desire entirely.  I have found that beauty comes in letting go of that "something" I thought I needed, and in shifting my focus to wanting Him, not something from him.  This has made me more open and available to start to see what God has planned for my life.

It has been my personal experience that I have come to believe that when we stop to look back, we will shout in thankfulness that he loved us enough not to allow us to just get what we thought we needed or what we believed to be good at the time, but actually brought us through trials so that we now get to experience life in the way that He planned - FULL.