Beholding and Becoming #9 Abundance and Plenty
Carload of Krispy Kremes
How do we measure abundance and plenty? By God's standards or the world's?
Simons refers to the familiar story of the woman at the well with Jesus. She writes "The Samaritan woman couldn't receive all that Jesus offered until she recognized that He was better than her hidden sin."
She challenges her readers to do several things:
"Count your blessings
Name one of your riches in Christ
Empty your online shopping cart. (One friend said, "I did. I emptied it to be shipped straight to my house!")
List things you need to acknowledge Jesus as "better than" in order to receive his abundance."
Visiting with a couple godly women over tea this week, one shared how hopeless young people are saying they feel these days. When they hear adults discussing the current climate of our nation and world is causes such anxiety.
God's Word tells us explicitly "Do not be anxious." I've kept pondering this state of mind in our young people. I told the ladies that our homes set the tone for the way our children feel. A change needs to occur where the hope of Christ and the fact that Jesus is in control is infiltrates their hearts and minds. If they don't believe the best is yet to come in heaven, that God is in control even when life seems out of control, then they are staring into a very bleak future. If they aren't standing for Christ and trusting in the Lord accepting that trials and uncomfortable times will come, then life can seem overwhelming. Oh, Lord, send people to teach the children.
I challenge you to do what I did and write out all these verses in your journal or prayer notebook and remember God gives to us in great abundance. And GO AND TELL of what God has done and continues to do.
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. Psalm 23:5
They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. Psalm 36:8
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. Ephesians 3:20
In an earlier devotional I wrote that my phone dings everyday at 3:20PM to remind me to recite Ephesians 3:20. What we put into our minds is what we believe.
The Song
"Anxious Heart" Jeremy Camp did this song in 2021 when anxiety was rampant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xle0Cf9acGM
and
"Take Time to Be Holy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4GAdx8NJoE
