Living An Abundant Life is a Choice

Jeffrey
Apr 11, 2020
10 min read

Updated: Apr 12, 2020

Do you find yourself living a life that is meaningful and fit the description of an abundant life? Or you are only getting by each day with little reason to rejoice? Are you full of expectations when you wake up each day, believing that it's going to be a good day? Most of the time, you wake up to a brand-new day, you decide whether it's a good day or a bad day.

The decision is yours. Yes, I mean to live an abundant life is a choice you make and I will show you why this is so. It's not about having good luck when things turn out well. Neither is it due to bad luck when you get into trouble. This is the key, it's all about your mindset and God did not plan for you to fail. You are made to prosper and succeed because of the favour of God in your lives.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Here are the few topics that I would like to touch on today. Observing these and advises, I pray that you would benefit from it and position yourself a step closer to the abundant life:

Unforgiveness
Be Kind and Courteous
Let Go and Let God Take Control
Remove Toxic People From Your Life
Get Rid of Bad Habits

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." John 10:10

Right from the beginning, it was God's plan that you may have life, and have it abundantly. You are not made by God to suffer. You are meant to be blessed, live a fruitful and overflowing life on this earth. Anything else that is negative is from the devil. It may be in the form of lies or values that you believed wrongly.

It could be an external factor such as the presence of toxic people in your life or bad habits. Whatever the stumbling blocks are, recognize them and remove them quickly. Be blessed as you continue to read on.

Unforgiveness

Forgiveness has absolutely nothing to do with how wrong someone else was or unrepentant and evil they are. When you forgive a person, you break the link to their ill deeds that keep you in a state of insanity. I will explain further below why you are doing yourself a favor to forgive.

Unforgiveness is one of the main culprits for robbing you of your happiness. It's quite sad to know that there are people who harbor resentment for an incident that happened many years ago. They continue to hold the grudges against a person even if that person had already passed on. And for many years, this unforgiveness never cease to poison and torment them. Day and night, they are robbed of their happiness and peace for not wanting to forgive and forget.

Our minds have been poisoned by this world's standard to believe that we should never forgive the person who wronged us. But do you know that lots of your emotional energy is wasted by refusing to let go? You wake up each day, and you are reminded of the evil things that others had done to you. The bitterness prevented you from excelling in your careers or doing productive activities. As a result, there is little energy left to do any other things in life. When you let it go, you release much of your emotional energy which can be used in a more useful way.

Be reminded that you forgive because you need the deliverance more than the person you want to forgive. Remember that it is for your benefit to forgive so that you are no longer under the bondage. It's bad enough to be hurt by others once, but it's very silly to allow that to hurt you over and over again by holding on to the grudge. It's like allowing the enemies to strike and injure you on the same spot repeatedly. So, remove the poison from your body so that you can be free to do the greater things in life.

When you are emotionally upset and down cast, nothing is right in your own world. You cannot help others when your mind is poisoned with unforgiveness because everything you see is ugly. Your mind will not be able to see good even when it comes.

Trust not in your own efforts to forgive. As a believer of Jesus Christ, I would like share with you this verse from the bible:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8

When you put your trust in God, God will give you the strength to forgive. And you will not fear when the heats of life come on you. Instead your leaves will be green, signifying that you will enjoy good health. You will not be anxious in time of trouble, instead God will make you like a fruitful vine and be prosperous in life.

Be Kind and Courteous

Kindness and Courtesy are such a powerful and amazing thing in this world. Kindness and Courtesy are like a silver lining around the dark clouds of mankind; it is the opposite of man's cruelty and baseness. Mastering the art of being kind and courteous will enhance your life and the lives of others around you.

I always experience enormous joy when I get to perform random acts of kindness, no matter how small that action is. Sometimes it's as simple as holding the door for another person, or helping an elderly to cross the road. Or it can be anything from a simple hello & giving a smile to a stranger who may had a rough day.

As you help another person in needs, it also reminds you that you are blessed to be in a position to help. And often, you may realize that the challenges you are going through is so insignificant compared to the plight of the person you are helping. And also, not to forget, it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.

When you are courteous all the time, the benefits are amazing. You will find that in this world, most people usually react positively to people who are always kind and courteous. It's hard for a person to be harsh or rude to someone who is smiling and courteous, don't you think so? Hence it really pays to be courteous and kind.

When humanity comes to a realization and awareness of the importance of kindness, courtesy, compassion and empathy, this world will be a better place to live in. We ought to do to others what we want others to do to ourselves. Similarly, don't do to others the things that you don't want others to do unto you.

Let Go and Let God Take Control

Are there things that you are unwilling to let go even when you know that there is more harm holding on than to let it go? Are you willing to let go of trying to take control of everything in your lives and let God take over? If you are willing to take the first step simply by choosing to release control to God, you will experience true freedom in every sense of the word.

Especially when the one that take over now is the almighty God who never fails.

The world we are living in today is full of demand. We are living in a stressed-out planet. Everything is moving in a pace that demand your attention immediately. Whether it's a demand from your boss, a message that in your phone, email arriving in your mailbox, bills to be paid, spouse who expects you to meet his/her emotional needs, parents and children with unending demands. Everyone want you to response now, and there is little time for you to breathe. It's like a candle burning from both ends and you feel like you are battling for time. You feel like everything is screaming at you to attend to their needs now.

Friend, this is the time to just let go and let God take control. God works best when you let Him works for you. When you try to work it out yourself, God goes to rest. But when you rest your soul and leave it to God, God goes to work for you! You were not made by God to live a life of stress because you were designed right from the start to live a life of rest.

Trusting God doesn't mean you don't do anything. Instead the difference is that the works you are doing now are carried out with faith instead of your own strength. It's called God directed activities. Meaning you are now trusting in God to help you to accomplish your works then taking everything into your own hands.

If you want to see super natural thing to happen, you have to let go of the natural. Natural things cannot be super natural, neither can a super natural thing be natural.

To really understand the art of letting go, you have to get this book written by Pastor Joseph Prince called "Live the Let Go Life". You will find practical tips on how to life a let go life and be free from worries and stress. In this book, Pastor Prince said:

"Letting go of your worries is not an irresponsible act. In fact, it is the most powerful thing you can do when you let them go into the hands of the One who created the universe."

Remove Toxic People from Your Life

I could not understand why this is a difficult task for many people. Even when people are clearly toxic and abusive, people will have many excuses over cutting them off and getting them out of their life.

You don't need a reason to get toxic people out of your life. It doesn't matter if they are a saint, as long as they are causing harm to you, or you are uncomfortable in their presence because they are always putting you down and make you look bad, you have the right to remove them from your life.

Being a gatekeeper to the peace in your own life is crucial. Learning to move people out of your circles of influence quickly and neatly is a vital life skill. Protect yourself and surround yourself only with those whom you share a common destiny. Be really careful on who you allow to stay in your life. They can either motivate and help you or pull you down into the pit.

You cannot achieve an abundant live if you invite unnecessary ugliness into your life. Think about how important it is to eat quality food. You are what you eat. If you eat well, it shows up in your body naturally. Similarly, if you are always eating junk food or having an unhealthy diet, it will not take long for you to notice the damages these foods caused to your health.

Life is a constant consumption of the surrounding through our senses. Every day, whatever we eat, see or experience are becoming are part of us in one way or another. We consume sights, food, conversations, sounds, air and time. Through unhealthy consumption, the soul within us begins to diminish as we are consumed by what we feed our soul.

The opposite is true. If yo expose yourself to thing that are true, honorable, pure and lovely, whatever that is of excellence and worthy of praise, you will be transformed to a higher ground.

So, be careful with the things that you are exposed to. And beware of the kind of people you are associating with who are a constant feed to your soul.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:8-9

How to identify people who are toxic? You can tell with the following characteristics. They are people who are not interested in making your life better, but they are more interested in what you can do for them. Having such people with you will drain your energy. They are constantly sucking up your energy to feed their hungry soul instead of replenishing yours. They hardly show any concern to your well-being nor put in any effort to motivate you.

Do you spend time with some people, and instead of feeling motivated, you feel as if a hundred-kilogram load of weight has been added to your shoulder? You leave with a heavy heart because they are always pouring out their complaints and sorrows to you. And they will share many pessimistic views on almost anything under the sun. They tend to see the world as being unfair, cruel and everyone on earth owes them a living. They would complaint why the government is not doing enough to help them. Or why the neighbour's dog is barking the whole day, or why they never get to strike lottery. If you spot such people in your life now, flee!

There are many more different categories of toxic people. You simply know them because you would feel lousy after spending time with them. You don't need me to go into details, you simply know who they are. For your own sake, you simply have to get rid of such people in order to live an abundant life.

Get Rid of Bad Habits

Can you already identify a list of the bad habits that you know you should quit?

Habit is hard to remove. When you remove the "H" you still have "abit". Remove the "a" you still have the "bit". After removing the "b" you will still have "it". The only way to totally remove "Habit" is to remove yourself ("i') from the equation and leave the cross ("t" - Jesus) behind to let God fully control your life.

What are the bad habits in life that you should seriously eliminate? Here are some of the list:

Alcoholism
Smoking
Procrastination
Unhealthy Eating Habits
Sleeping late
Gambling
Complaining
Trying to be Perfectionist
Watching Too Much TV
Giving Empty Promises
Habitually Late

Eliminating all, or most of your bad habits in life will certainly thrust your nearer to the abundant life that you deserve. So, stock take today and act on the bad habits that you should get rid of.

Conclusion

I wish that what I've written above may help you in one way or another. These tips are not exhaustive, I am sure there are many other things that we need to take note in life to achieve the full abundant life that our God promised for us. But I am sure when you choose to forgive, be kind and courteous, live a let-go live, remove toxic people from your life and get rid of bad habits, I declare and proclaim that you are going to experience abundant life soon.

Read up on my other blog post in "The Secret to Happiness in Life" and get a glimpse of how this can also help you to achieve a abundant life.