Scarcity vs. Abundance
How do you VIEW God?
Have you ever though about this? How you GIVE to God is determined by how you VIEW God.
Jesus once told a story about a rich man who had more grain than he had room for in his barns. His solution? He tore down his existing barns so he could build bigger barns so he would have enough room for all his crops and other goods.
Why did he do this?
What propelled the man is this story was fear.
Even though he had more than enough, he was afraid. For him, enough would never be enough because… What if something happened? What if he ran out? What if next year the harvest wasn’t as good as it was this past year?
So the rich man used his energy for accumulation, for storing up all he had so that, as much as possible, he could protect himself, provide for himself, and live a comfortable life.
How do we measure life?
Before Jesus even told this little parable he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” – Luke 12.15
Which is interesting because we live in a world where life is precisely measured by what we own!
We look at people and we see where they live, the cars they drive, the vacations they take, and if those things meet or exceed a certain standard we have in our minds we think… they are rich!
And what that does inside of most of us is that it stirs this desire within us for more. So much so that no matter how much we have, enough is never enough. Without even realizing it we can become like the man in the story that Jesus told.
Truthfully, most of us have more than enough but we continue our striving for more. We spend our energy on accumulation. We build bigger barns… or at least we buy bigger houses, nicer cars, and so on. In fact, we buy things we don’t need to impress people we may not even like… but as the old saying goes, we’re just trying to keep up with the Jones’.
Why do we do this?
What propels us more often than not is also fear.
Even though we have more than enough, we are afraid. We are afraid of what people will think of us, we are worried about what might happen if, we are stressed about so many things.
So we use our energy for accumulation, for storing up all we can so that, as much as possible, we can protect ourselves, provide for ourselves, and live a comfortable life.
A Different Way
Jesus teaches his disciples to be different. And he offers an important truth. He says, “…a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
Here’s what’s really interesting… if we have a rich relationship with God, if we spend our energy seeking first the Kingdom of God, and if we cease our striving for the things of this world what we’ll find is that we have everything we need.
What the man in the story either didn’t know or failed to remember is that our God is not a God of scarcity, our God is a God of abundance. And when we see God as a God of abundance who we can trust to take care of us and provide for all of our needs, we’ll be set free to live our lives with open hands and open hearts.
We’ll be free to give to those in need and share everything we have with those around us because “Life is not measured by how much you own.” No, it’s measured but how much you give.
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