Echoing the Song of Abundant Life

On our spiritual journey we face moments when we are not happy, and we cannot enjoy spiritual life because there is something missing. You try to be good, to do things right, and you fall again. You make promises, and you make mistakes again.

Then Satan comes and says: “What kind of Christian are you? You see, it makes no sense to keep trying. You are false; you are a liar before God, you say one thing and do another, you believe one thing and live other. If you want to be honest—leave this church, give up, you cannot be perfect, it is impossible to be perfect on this earth.”

We need to be helped by a power outside of ourselves.

“There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”—Steps to Christ, p. 64.

A mother, wishing to encourage her young son’s progress at the piano, bought tickets for a Paderewski performance. When the night arrived, they found their seats near the front of the concert hall and eyed the majestic Steinway waiting on the stage. Soon the mother found a friend to talk to, and the boy slipped away. When eight o’clock arrived, the spotlights came on, the audience quieted, and only then did they notice the boy up on the bench, innocently picking out, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” His mother gasped, but before she could retrieve her son, the master appeared on the stage and quickly moved to the keyboard. He whispered to the boy, “Don’t quit—keep playing.” Leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. Soon his right arm reached around to the other side, encircling the child, to add a running obbligato. Together, the old master and the young novice held the crowd mesmerized. In our life, unpolished though we may be, it is the Master who dwelt among the lowly that surrounds us and whispers in our ear, time and again, “Don’t quit—keep playing.” And as we do, He adds and supplements until a work of amazing beauty is created. And so we enjoy every moment with Him, and it becomes a pleasure to work for Him while singing the song of abundant life.

The Master assures us, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).