Claiming the Life that Christ offers us.

If you won 20 million in the lottery would you claim it?It still amazes me that all of these things I write always seem to come to me while I'm working out. But yesterday as I'm exercising an interesting thought came into my head. How many of us play the lottery at least once in awhile in hope of 'hitting it big?' ..... how many of us play it ALL the time in hopes of doing the same?As I thought about this I imagined if I won 20 million dollars in the lottery. Wow just the thought of that sends a chill up my spine. I thought about what would be the first thing I would buy. I have one word for you 'LAMBORGHINI' !!!! Awwww yeahhh !!!! And then as I continued to think how incredible it would be to win the lottery, I thought about that infamous winning ticket. Imagine sitting there watching those small plastic balls be whooshed up the long plastic tubes to their final destiny. Has anyone ever found it somewhat ironic that 6 plastic balls could change your life? Not only do I find it ironic but it's hard not to see the hilarity in it. So imagine sitting there, each ball is whooshed up the tubes and one by one your numbers are popping up. With each number you have right, your excitement builds. Suddenly 6 numbers later, you've won the lottery. You've just won 20 million dollars. By the way for those of you who are frequent lottery players, forgive me if I'm wrong about 6 numbers, I could be one or two numbers off but I could swear it's 6.So now you've won the jackpot. 20 million dollars is yours. Not to be a bubble burster....is burster even a word? Anyways, right off the bat half of your earnings are gone. The joys of the Federal Government. But hey 10 million dollars ain't half bad you know?So now after you've picked yourself up off the floor you probably start calling everyone you know to tell them that you've just won 20 million dollars. By the way don't be surprised at the incredible rise of people who start calling you their 'best' friend. So after 4 or 5 hours of complete elation, now what? What do you have to do next. Well the answer is fairly simple. You have to claim your prize. You need to claim your 20 million. The word 'claim' in Webster's dictionary means: To ask for especially as a right, to take as the rightful owner.See here's the deal, you've just won 20 million dollars, but it's not going to just magically appear in your bank account. You won't blink and find a tall stack of cash in front of you. You need to claim your prize. You have the winning ticket, you are now the rightful owner of that 20 million. But you need to claim it. In John 10:10 Jesus said, I came so that they may have and enjoy life in abundance, to the full, until it overflows.How many of us are REALLY enjoying life. I mean seriously, how many of us can say that our life is just overflowing with happiness? I wish I could say most of us, but I'm guessing the number is sadly on the low end. So why… why aren’t we enjoying life? Could it be that, that life is available to all of us but we just haven’t really pursued it very much?What if we had the winning ticket, and we called to ‘claim’ our prize. Let’s say you called to claim your prize and they said that in order to get your 20 million dollars you had to show up IN person that day at the NYS lottery headquarters. If your in Syracuse that’s about a 3 hour drive to Albany. Let’s make it more interesting and say that it’s the biggest blizzard of the entire year and they are cautioning everyone to stay off the roads. You have to get there today or you’ll lose your 20 million. I’m going to make an assumption. Almost every single person reading this would find a way to get there somehow !!!Isn’t it funny how huge of an importance we put on money. I mean money does ‘help’ there’s no doubt about it. But I think we’d all agree, money isn’t everything. Some of the richest people I know are also some of the unhappiest as well. Money can buy a lot, but it can’t buy love, and it can only keep you happy for so long.God makes a lot of amazing promises to us. He promises us peace, happiness, joy, blessing, prosperity…I could go on and on. But so many of us live without a whole heck of a lot of happiness and joy…don’t we? How come we don’t go after God like we would go after that 20 million dollars that we had to claim THAT day in a blizzard? It could be 22 hours away, and I bet most people would find a way to get there. Heck, add a hurricane on the way along with the blizzard…again…for 20 million…most would somehow, someway find a way to get there.But when it comes to God…eh…not so much. We don’t really go after God with all we are. Why though?Now regardless of what your faith is or your personal beliefs, God promises us some pretty incredible things. Even if you weren’t 100% sure you believed ‘everything’ considering what he promises I’d think it would be at least worth a shot for most. I mean we buy a lottery ticket even though the chances of us winning are like 1 in 20 billion. So I’d say that giving God a chance to ‘live up’ to some of the amazing promises he makes us is certainly worth a try ….don’t you? In Micah God said ‘test me in this’. God says, you don’t think I’m going to live up to what I say, test me ! In Jeremiah 29:13 God says, When you seek me with all your heart you will find me. Or in the Message Bible it says, When you get serious about finding me, and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you aren’t disappointed.” Ok so here’s the CREATOR of the universe saying, if you want me, come get me and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. Not only will we not be disappointed, but I could write 20 pages on just half of the things he promises us. In Joshua 1, God told Joshua that if he focused on him, he would be prosperous and successful. Now come on who doesn’t want to be prosperous and successful. God says, you want it? Come and get it. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 ‘Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. I will ease, relieve and refresh your souls.’ Now how many of us could use some that? I know I could use a little refreshing. Jesus says..you want it? Come get it.In the Message Bible it says ‘A better life than you ever dreamed of’. So Jesus promises us a better than than we could ever dream of. What an amazing promise. That’s a promise I think I’d go after with all that I had in me !I could go on and on for pages about all the promises God makes us. But it all comes down to a very simple point. The life we want is right in front of us. We just have to claim it. God promises us some amazing things, but time and time again from the beginning of time … with everything God promises, he calls us to take action. The Israelites stood on the edge of a raging river. Men, woman and children. What they stared at I’m sure looked terrifying. God promised to deliver them. BUT. As they stood on the edge of that raging Jordan river, God said, Step In. Now an interesting note here is that it says the water was at flood stage. So it’s not just a raging river, but I really deep raging river. But what happens, they did exactly what God told them to do. They stepped in, and God did exactly as he promised. Not only that but he parted the river about 60 miles wide. And millions of Israelites crossed. An interesting side note here is that it says in vs. 14 of Joshua 4 that the after this amazing thing happened the people of Israel ‘revered’ Joshua all the days of his life. All because Joshua obeyed God. Incidently Joshua made it a point to go after God. In Exodus 34 a few books back it says that Joshua made it a point to spend time with God. However that’s an entire different story in and of itself. Keep in mind this raging river was just one of many obstacle that the Israelites faced on their way to the Promised Land. What is standing in between you and ‘your’ Promised Land? What obstacle are you staring at right now, that God is saying, Step in and watch what I do. Test me he says ! Isaiah 49:23 says Those who hope in me will NOT be disappointed. Hebrews 11:6 says that God rewards those who ‘diligently’ seek him. James 4:8 ‘Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.’ The psalmist said in Ps. 16:11 that In His presence was fullness of joy.So here’s the thing. Remember back when I was talking about the lottery and I gave the Webster’s definition of ‘claim’. It means to have the rightful ownership of. So stay with me here on this point. Because of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross 2,000 years ago WE have rightful ownership to EVERYTHING that God promises. And it has NOTHING to do with anything we’ve done. We didn’t even have to ‘buy a ticket’ so to speak. The moment Jesus died on that cross for us he gave us rightful ownership of every single thing that God promises. And what does he ask of us? Claim it. In John 3 Jesus says more than once, that those who believe in Him will have eternal life. By the way ‘eternal’ does not mean ‘later’ it means ‘unending’. Many misinterpret Jesus’ promise. He isn’t just promising us life after death he is promising us a full and happy life starting NOW. Not after we die. So what are you waiting for? Claim it. SW