Abundance Not Scarcity and Sunday Grace Notes

Do you live your life with a closed fist or an open hand? In today’s Sunday Grace Notes, I share how to live for abundance, not scarcity in your life.

I love to collect rocks.

When we lived out west and would venture out on hikes in the hills, I always came home with a stone that captured my eye, like this heart shaped one.

It reminds me of how the Lord’s hand is always at work in my life, carving out and refining the bad to create me into a clearer reflection of Him.

But in order to allow that change to happen, it all starts with your mindset.

Abundance – Not Scarcity

Think about a tightly closed fist for a moment.

If someone wanted to give you something, like a gift, food, or money, how can you receive it with that closed fist?

I love the Bible story of the loaves and fishes.

In the gospels, the story of how the Lord blessed the multitude of 5000 with the loaves and fishes is recorded in each book. (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:12-17, and John 6:1-14)

5000 men were fed with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Now this doesn’t include the women and children.

So think about that for a moment. Add a woman or child to each man, some having multiple children with them.

That’s 10000 or 15000 people all needing food!

And the disciples knew what hangry crowd was about to explode.

They went to the Lord and told them of their predicament with such little food to go around.

After the Lord blessed the food, he told the disciples to give the fish and loaves out.

And everyone ate and everyone was full.

Then the Lord told His disciples to gather the leftovers. Those leftovers filled 12 baskets.

12 baskets filled with leftover fish and pieces of bread.

What a picture of abundance!

And now think about your own life.

Do you think of things in abundance or scarcity?

With the looming medical bills from Trent’s Open Heart Surgery, I have to confess that I’ve been leaning toward the mindset of scarcity.

Start by changing your thinking.

The enemy wants us to focus on the me-monster inside us all.

I’m that untrusting person – worried that there isn’t enough.

Enough money, food, opportunity, possibilities.

Scarcity.

That closed fist mentality.

And, boy, we can get tangled into those lies and clutch with dear life to the little, inconsequential things in our lives.

It’s so easy for me to realize that I focus on the scarcity in my life instead of the abundance we have been given.

The blessing of my marriage, my children, a home, friends, a church family, loving parents, let alone the blessing of Trent’s successful surgery.

And it’s not just you and me – we’ve seen it in our own culture with the toilet paper and gas hoarding over these past few years.

Or not being helpful to others in case they desire to harm us.

Maybe it’s that needy friend we avoid that cause us an inconvenience in our busy lives.

In the end, what will all that energy spent on focusing on scarcity amount to?

Instead of thinking that I don’t have enough, or that if things don’t go the way I want them to, or spending so much time worrying about the what-ifs (even though they rarely happen), I miss the most important part of everyday.

Abundant blessing.

But that starts with releasing the fisted grip and opening our hands.

We miss the ability to bless others.

It’s all in this mindset of MINE, MINE, MINE that unleashes the selfishness in ourselves and others.

This is my stuff, this is my job, this affects my time, and this is my money.

There are abundant opportunities to contribute to the Kingdom for His Glory that are placed before us.

To serve, sing, create, write.

In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus had compassion on His followers in need of a shepherd and said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

We can’t receive with a closed fist.

But guess what?

We also can’t give to others with that same closed fist.

That scarcity mindset limits our ability to bless others.

Whoever receives is blessed, but the one who gives is blessed even more.

Open hands and open hearts are needed for both.

It’s not your stuff, career, time or money. It’s all from God.

And honoring Him with your whole life is to hold these things with an open hand.

That also means you may have to be willing to let go in order to receive something new.

We also lose the possibility of receiving His blessings.

We may often wonder why God hasn’t answered our prayers.

But could that be because we are still clinging to the old, making it unable to receive the new?

St. Augustine once said, “God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.”

You cannot reach as far if your hands are closed.

And you cannot receive if your hands are closed.

We have a gracious Father who is more than willing to give us great things. In fact, He desires to give to us more than we could ever imagine for ourselves.

So, open your hands and receive those great things, and let go of what little you think you have.

We need to finally be empty enough to become truly full.

And the beauty of it all is that we don’t even have to understand how all this works to receive the gifts.

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Ephesians 3:18-19

I hope this encourages you!

I’m right there with you, learning to embrace the belief that I am enough in Him, that I have enough, and that God will continue to supply us with enough.

All because He is enough.

Embrace the gospel of abundance, trusting in the One who calls you His very own.