Saved Me From What?Sample

Saved From Lifelessness

Today’s devotional isn’t about being saved from death; we’ll get to that tomorrow. It’s about being saved from “lifelessness,” which admittedly sounds somewhat similar but which I will explain.

I have a chest freezer in my garage where we store the frozen things we don’t use daily: Christmas cookies, meat that was on sale that we’re saving, pre-made soup, etc.

A few years ago, at the height of a summer heat wave, a member of my family, who shall remain nameless (due to my great love for her and the nature of our God-sanctioned covenant vow), unplugged the freezer for a moment to plug something else in (plugs are at a premium in the garage), and then accidentally forgot to plug the freezer back in.

I can still smell the stench of hot, defrosted meat the next day, and I remember many days of scrubbing the now-defrosted freezer floor with a variety of cleaners, trying to get all the meat juices and their stench out.

The freezer has been a brilliant and convenient addition to our lives, giving us much extra storage and many more food options. There was only one fatal flaw in its design:

It needed to remain plugged in.

When the plug was disconnected, there was no power, and where there was no power, things quickly fell apart.

Jesus came promising “fullness of life” for the believer. Not a life of barely scraping by, but full of the life of God.

Later in John’s Gospel, He would use the metaphor of a branch remaining connected to a vine, thriving and bearing much fruit (John 15:1-8), since the vine is where the sustenance for the branch comes from. Life with Jesus is meant to be full of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23) because the Holy Spirit is full of these qualities, and as we connect with Him, our lives will be full of them too.

The life of the Spirit flows in the life of the believer regardless of circumstance or situation because God is greater than any circumstance or situation.

Jesus saves us from a life disconnected from the life of the Spirit, bringing the “fullness of life” into our lives so that we may walk this world full of the things of God and have everything we need because we remain connected to Him.

Prayer: Lord, fill my life with the life of the Spirit! Help me to experience the “fullness of life” that You promised to bring. Regardless of my circumstances, may my life be marked by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Reflection: What gets in the way of you experiencing the “fullness of life” that Jesus promised? What can you do to remove those obstacles?