As we saw on Day 1, the most important way we want to flourish is in our love and obedience to God. This will lead us to flourishing in other areas of life.
Like the Apostle John, who flourished in two areas of life:
SPIRITUALLY – He started out as one of the “Sons of Thunder” but ended as “The Apostle of Love”.
In his “Sons of Thunder” days, they were traveling with Jesus, and Jesus met with opposition from a town in Samaria. This is John “Hey – do you want us to call down fire from heaven and destroy them?” Luke 9:54. You’ve got to love John and yes, sometimes Jesus’ followers don’t act as much like Him as we should. As he “aged gracefully” he also aged in grace. He still had strong opposition to evil - he denounces apostates and deceivers (1 John 2:22) and calls out the “whore of Babylon” in Revelation, but it is tempered by love. He uses love over 40 times in the book of 1 John.
PHYSICALLY – He wrote the Book of Revelation when he was 90
Near the end of his life, he wrote the apocalyptic Book of Revelation. He writes about things that are prophetic and “outside of our dimensions of space and time.” (Chuck Missler).
I wonder if he was sitting around on Patmos thinking, “why and I’m still here. All the other Apostles have gone on home to be with Jesus.” and then Jesus shows up and he almost passes out, and we have the book of Revelation. He may have been wondering “How can God use me this late in life?” and the God uses him to write one of the most amazing literary creations ever written. With God, we can flourish.
Day 2 Task – Believe that you can flourish. Ask God what that means for you:
- Is it spiritual transformation? What areas do you want to transform?
- Hate to Love
- Self-indulgence to Self-control
- Foolishness to Wisdom
- Anger to Peace
- Pride to Humility
- Fear to Faith
Tomorrow we will look at flourishing the physical realm.