Soldier In Starlight
How to Live Abundantly
When we are in jaw dropping worship of Jesus, He will open our eyes to the intimate thoughts of His heart, and in turn, you will have “life more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Jeremy Li
“For by Me do thy days multiply, and added to thee are years of life.”
- Proverbs 9:11 YLT
How many of y’all want this promise even though it doesn’t mathematically make sense?
It’s like that news headline that doesn’t exist that says, “BREAKING: Child in Africa born with extra 10 hours!”
How do we get more time? It’s commonly stated that everyone gets 24 hours in the day, 365 days a year. So how do we get more?
It might help if we pull out Jeremy’s Dramatized Translation and read that verse again:
“Because you are in awe of YHWH, you will live longer and your life will be worth living!”
- BROVERBS 9v11 JDT
Hold up Jeremy! Where did you get that “Because you are in awe…” part from?
Well, the “For by Me” is where I got it, and if you look at v10 you will see the phrase, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”. Now remember that “fear” in modern English should be translated as awe or worship. You’ll remember when Jesus “changed” the verse in Matthew 4:10.
Now, this phrase is repeated repeatedly throughout Proverbs and it means that when we are in jaw dropping worship of Jesus, He will open our eyes to the intimate thoughts of His heart, and in turn, you will have “life more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
So you’re saying that if I worship God, I will live longer and have… as Wootton Bassett in E513 of Adventures in Odyssey says, “Quality of life”?
In a word… Yes.
To strengthen this bridge between long life and worship, let’s take a look at communion.
“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.”
- Proverbs 9:5
Communion paints one of the clearest images we have of Jesus. It reminds us of the physical and spiritual suffering He faced during what we fittingly call His Passion.
But communion is more than a way to eat (jaw dropping worship lol) and see Jesus. It is one of the means by which God gives us life. Y’all remember What Paul said,
“... not discerning the body of the Lord. Because of this, among you many are weak and sickly, and sleep do many” 1 Corinthians 11:29b-30
The Corinthians didn’t understand the healing power of communion, and so they were not getting the physical healing that Jesus paid for when He was beaten and scourged.
So to put it all together… Today’s Proverb is talking about an actionable step we can take to live a long, fulfilled, happy, prosperous life:
Worship Jesus by visualizing His finished work at the cross, then “thy days multiply, and added to thee are years of life.”
P.S. If you have not joined the BROVERBS Train, reading the Proverb of the day every day with some friends, I invite you to jump on the bandwagon. It’s a whole lot of fun!