Unnoticed Abundance

Abundance… This word is a tricky one.  I am a self proclaimed minimalist, mostly due to the fact that I am cheap.  I am easily overwhelmed with almost anything and I thrive with less. Less stuff, less tasks, less obligations, less decisions.  Just less. It is something I am working on accepting about myself. Progress pending.

The more I learn about God, the less I know. Max Lucado sited a quote from CS Lewis’ Prince Caspian in which Lucy was talking to Aslan.  

“Aslan" said Lucy "you're bigger.”

"That is because you are older, little one" answered he.

"Not because you are?"

"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

All the Yes’!

In understanding God, I am constantly reminded that we live in the tension.  Poor are rich. Rich are poor. Salvation is here, but not yet. Works do not gain salvation, but works show salvation.  All the seeming contradictions just further clarify how big, beautiful, and complex God is. Bigger than we can ever know.

So I would say I am not an “abundant” person.  I feel safer with less. I like things to be small, neat, and manageable.

And I have also found that in the places we feel safe and secure, is where God likes to challenge us most.

Continually, my attention is being drawn to the idea of abundance.  God is an abundant God.

He is Creator, lavisher of gifts, full of strength and grace.  

He is abundant.  Magnificent in the most defining sense.  He is in everything and everything is in him.

It is easy to nod your head in agreement of that when you are looking at the sunset, or standing over the Grand Canyon.  But do I really believe that in the day to day?...

I don’t see his abundance often.  Like when your paycheck is short and your bills get bigger.

Or when there are more jobs than people to do them.  Or when I feel like that hours of the day just flew right by me.

So often I focus on what I don’t have enough of.

Money, patience, coffee, friends.

The abundance of His provision is written off as just normal daily occurrences, and the delayed answers and seen wanting.

Psalm 71:15 says “ But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day for their number is past my knowledge.”

Innumerable righteous acts. Incomprehensible salvation.

They are “past my knowledge.”

Past my knowledge in one sense because I am human and incapable of fully understanding all God does.

But in another sense, past my knowledge because I refuse to acknowledge them.  So caught up in life and worries that I fail to see what God is doing. Or outright ignore it.  

God is abundant, and creation screams of it.  He shows us His abundance every day. In the world, with its vast oceans, rolling mountains, endless sandy beaches, and yes, bountiful corn stalks.  

But He also shows it in our daily lives.  He extends endless patience towards us. Grace upon grace on our sins and rebelliousness.  The ever present, never absent Spirit who guides us. In almost unnoticed protection and provision. Little miracles that happen everyday.

He is so abundant that He takes care of all our needs, and most of our wants whether we choose to be satisfied or not.

The beauty of God’s abundance is that it is unmatched.  The Creator of all things will never lack for anything. And in that He does not even blink an eye at pouring it out to us.  Because it won’t ever run out. He has no need to hoard it for himself, or for rainy days ahead. Rain is also in abundance for Him.

But almost even more beautiful is the subtlety of it.  He has all the abundance in the world so there is no need to dole out it all like it’s going out of style.  He is wise and patient, withholding until the time is absolutely right. There is no franticness, which leads to pure joy and delight in the giving.  Unhurried and unhindered ceremony. He has the luxury of being patient, because everything bows to him. Even time and eternity.

God does not need to flaunt His abundance to win us over.  He is perfectly whole without us. So He has no need to please, or win, or manipulate.  No need to impress because our opinion of Him doesn’t change who He is.

He is abundant in all things.

Most awesome is His abundant mercy.  That He would send his own son into the world to take on our sin and debt.  That He would freely give away what only He had to save us. His salvation is abundant.  His mercy is abundant. His grace is abundant.

And if He has complete abundance in all those things that truly matter, He will truly be abundant in everything else.

So if you don’t feel His abundance… if you are feeling spread thin and lacking, ask the Spirit to change your definition of abundance.  Because in Christ we have all the we need. We will have all the we will need. And we have had all that we have needed.

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10