Living BIG or Living small?

I wish I could say the reason I haven't posted since April is because all I've done is LIVED REALLY BIG for the past eight months, but that wouldn't be completely true.  And if it were true, you would have read all about it!  So, suffice it say, I've been lazy, distracted and have overlooked my blog--confession made, let's move on.

Here's the question:  Have you been living really BIG or living really small?  What do I mean by that?  For Christians, we've been promised an abundant, full life.  The definition of "abundant" is this:  present in great quantity; more than adequate; over-sufficient.  Every day we are invited to live a life that is PRESENT IN GREAT QUANTITY; MORE THAN ADEQUATE....OVER-SUFFICIENT....!  Did you hear that? (Trust me, I'm speaking to myself.)  When we accept His offer and surrender to the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit will be what we receive....love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  What else could we ask for, really?  I mean, seriously, think about that....read through those gifts again....LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS and SELF-CONTROL!  . . . EVERYDAY!  We don't have to do much to live life full of those attributes, we only have to surrender to Jesus every morning and accept His invitiation to live life to the fullest WITH HIM!

Or . . . are we living our lives really small?  When I'm living life small, I'm trapped in my own little world of me.  Just poor ol' me.  Maybe I think my situation is worse than anyone else, or no one understands what I'm going through or if I could just have this or that. . .THEN my life would be full.  The common denominator in a small way of life is me.  Just me.  No one else.   When I live a life so small, there's actually no room for anyone or anything else.  SELF takes up residency in my heart and head and suffocates the life right out of me.  Literally.  Everything else dies because SELF has smothered it to death. We don't even have enough room in our minds to think of someone else.  This is a great tool of the enemy to keep us living a small life and before we know it, we wake up everyday to a small world without hope, without joy, without love-without any of God's goodness.  Trust me, that is no way to live.

I challenge us to open the doors wide to our hearts and mind- spread our wings and soar!  Stop limiting my life to ME.  It causes us to live really small.  Abundant and small just don't go together, now do they?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. 

I came that they may have life and have it ABUNDANTLY.  

John 10:10 ESV