We are God’s children, His created masterpieces, as He calls us in Ephesians 2:10. He created us with His purpose in mind, and part of it is for us to live a rich and satisfying existence. Living this more than abundant life requires us to trust God and to trust the truth of His Word. We must believe that He is a Rewarder to those of us who diligently seek Him, and we must also believe that God is our Creator, and that everything we will ever need, He provides. Ephesians 1:3 declares that because we are in Christ, our wonderful Heavenly Father has given us access to every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. He’s provided all that we will ever need to live a satisfying, fulfilling, and meaningful existence, and this bountiful reality is best achieved when we are thankful and enjoy the simple things of life.

Jesus Christ has revealed the highest and greatest humanity to all the world. He set a perfect pattern for all humans to follow, and it’s his example that allows us to embrace the fullest expression of all that God created us to be. Philippians 4:7(NLT) tells us, “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Through the new birth reality, God has made it available for us to live in Christ, because Christ lives in us. We have received God’s peace, which guards our hearts and minds as we continue to follow the example of love that Jesus Christ gave us.

Our Heavenly Father placed His Holy Spirit within our spirits when we gave our lives to Christ. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20(NLT), “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We died to our old life, and now we have a new life that is eternally hidden in Christ. When our Heavenly Father looks at us, He doesn’t see our faults and mistakes. He sees the Christ in us. We’re not perfect, but we are being perfected day by day. We’re working towards measuring up to the pattern Christ has given us, and because of what God has accomplished through His only begotten Son’s sacrifice and resurrection, our Heavenly Father knows that one day we’re going to be all that He planned. That’s what He sees when He looks at us, and this is very Good News indeed!

Romans 8:16(NLT) says, “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” Many of us think that we can’t measure up to the example of Jesus Christ. We think we can’t be as compassionate, loving, kind, thoughtful, generous, and powerful as he was when he walked the earth. Without the Holy Spirit, we can’t truly have these Christ-like attributes, but because God has placed His Spirit in us, we absolutely can!  

We make our lives very complicated, and therefore, the simple things seem unachievable. Jesus Christ, our example, didn’t live a complicated life. He lived a life totally focused on our Heavenly Father and the mission that God sent him to do. This is what we must do as well. Jesus did more than leave us a pattern, he made it possible for us to live by his love and power. All we have to do to achieve it is to yield, to totally surrender our will for God’s Will, but this has proved to be a very challenging thing for many individuals to do. We find ourselves clinging so desperately to what this world has to offer, that we lack the bandwidth to reach out to God with all our hearts. This is something we must change if pleasing Him is our goal.

Many of us want to be famous, rich, popular, and adored. We want to be the focus of attention, and we want to possess all the things we think will make others love us. These desires can sink us. In our minds, they seem like the pinnacle of a rich life, but they bring a complexity and destruction that none of us are ever prepared to handle. Worldly desires consume our energies and resources, and the enemy’s goal is to trick us through them, so that we have nothing left in our souls but his darkness. Nothing that we can gain is worth this price.

God tells us in Proverbs 3:5-7 (NLT), “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. 7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil.” Each of us has a purpose in the plan and Will of God. We must trust His plan for our lives because it’s the best one. Life becomes very simple when we follow God’s lead because He knows exactly what we should be doing and how we should be doing it. So, let’s make life simple by living through the Lord Jesus Christ and following his example. Let go of the things he tells you to release and simply immerse yourself in your relationship with God.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“The Simple Things of Life”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.