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ALTON - In the most recent episode of “You’re Beautiful” with Brian Trust, Cole Abell shared his perspective on fulfillment and obedience to God.
Abell, a Christian music artist, spoke about the power of prayer and reading the Bible to help people connect to God. He believes this is how to build a relationship with Him. While Abell has struggled with feelings of unfulfillment, his faith has guided him through these periods of uncertainty.
“Faithfulness and obedience will always take you further than staying complacent,” Abell said. “If I want to build my relationship with God, what do I have to do? Doing nothing gets me nothing. If I want to build my relationship, I have to do what? Get in the word, pray, go to church, worship. There’s all these things in His word. We act like we don’t know what to do when it comes to God, but it’s all right there in His book. All we have to do is read it.”
Abell encourages people to find a translation of the Bible that makes sense to them. Through worship, he has found a greater sense of fulfillment in his own life.
He noted that there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is fleeting, but joy is more constant, and there are always reasons to rejoice. For example, Abell said, you probably would be pretty unhappy if you popped a tire on the highway. But you can find joy in knowing that God was moving in your life, whether to protect you from an accident or to connect you with someone or for another reason that’s not readily apparent.
“I can rejoice because God’s going to do something in this moment,” Abell said. “He’s going to create something. He’s going to turn it for my good. So it’s that ability to say, although I may not be happy and happiness will come and go, I can always choose to rejoice. I can always choose joy.”
The power of choosing is a strong theme in Abell’s life. He lives by the mantra, “Doing nothing gets you nothing.” He pointed out that you can pray for a new job, but unless you send out your résumé, nothing will happen. Similarly, unless you put effort into building your relationship with God, you will never have the relationship with Him that you want.
“If I just say that these are my problems, if I just say that this is the struggle, if I just say this is everything that’s going on but then I make no action, no plan of action to do anything about it, then I’m staying right where I’m at,” he explained. “I’m never going to move beyond where I’m trying to get to if I do absolutely nothing.”
By making those decisions and building your relationship with God, Abell said, you begin to see God’s presence in your life. While we live in a “fallen world,” Abell believes God is constantly moving, and we can ask Him to move in our own lives.
Some people worry that they’re asking too much of God, and others don’t want to appear selfish by asking Him for help. But Abell believes it’s a show of faith to trust God with our lives and open ourselves to His miracles.
“Our faith is built by continually seeing victory after victory after victory through Christ,” he said. “For whatever reason, we shut down God being able to move in our lives. Whether it’s that we feel like we don’t deserve it or we try to take this unselfish approach, like, ‘God, I don’t need you to do that for me, I’m content, I’m good, whatever.’ But honestly, it’s selfish to not let God do what He wants to do. He’s so freely giving all these things.”
Ultimately, Abell encourages people to engage with the Bible, pray, and find a church community that helps them grow closer to God. He knows many people struggle with church hurt, but he urges folks to forgive and try again. The goal is to build an authentic relationship with God; this, Abell believes, is how we find fulfillment.
Watch or listen to “You’re Beautiful” with Brian Trust at 2 p.m. on Thursdays on RiverBender.com/Beautiful.
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