Resignation and the Abundant Life

This is just an opinion but to me there seems to be spirit of resignation among the people of God. We often don’t live the abundant life Jesus promised us; we have stopped even believing it is attainable.

What am I talking about? What is it I see that manifests itself as resignation among the people of God. What does it mean?

Resignation: an accepting, unresisting attitude, state, etc.; submission; acquiescence: to meet one's fate with resignation.

-the acceptance of something undesirable but inevitable

It hit me that resignation is born in cynicism and it is in direct conflict with faith. Faith is being certain for that we hope for, and evidence of that we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). And without faith, it is impossible to please God ( Hebrews 11:6). 

As we began our study Breaking Free this week,  I felt the Lord calling me to encourage my class members to resist the temptation to be resigned to the fact that they will always be who they are today…that their course has been set. Some of them have believed the lie that they need to settle in and accept that their experiences, those they have chosen by their free will, and those that were swept into their lives because of the sinfulness others, have sealed their destinies. I urged them to reject the feeling that many believers have that they have no option but to resign to what they have come to believe is true about their lives:  that what they are now is what they always will be.

Some of us are completely comfortable in the place of resignation; it feels right to us. We wear it like a coat. It is so comfortable we are at home in it. We don’t know anything else so we assume this is our reality. I say this because I have been there. I lived all cloaked up and very sure that my destiny was set in stone.  


But it wasn't my destiny and I "broke free."  Praise God! Or maybe, I could more accurately say, God broke me free.  By His grace, I walked out of the darkness into the marvelous light of God's love and freedom. I learned the power of grace and I chose to accept it rather than turning away from it as one unworthy. I am not worthy but that is exactly why I needed grace then and why I need it everyday to live free from the lies that once defined my life. To know that God loves me exactly the way I am has been the most liberating truth of my life. It has freed me up to trust God, love myself, and have great compassion for others. There is just something so wonderful that our God would take what was bitter and make it bittersweet. 


I cast cynicism aside for faith---faith in the God who does not fail, in His love, in His correction, in His power for living. Faith is the catalyst to the abundant life that is ours in Christ.  What a glorious gift of grace for now and forevermore. Amen and amen.