God of Abundance
Anastasia is an old coworker of mine, who immigrated to the United States when she was eight years old. Her parents were professors and fled the Soviet Union. They lived in cramped apartments for most of her life until they could afford a more spacious home. They moved into a four bedroom home while she was in college.
Much to Anastasia’s surprise, her mom intentionally left an entire room of the house completely empty. Her mom smartly organized every room so that she could keep this whole room empty. She kept that door open and smiled every time she passed it. To her that was the ultimate sign of wealth – so much space that you didn’t have to fill it all.
When Anastasia told me this story it stood out to me as a striking contrast to how most people I know view space – the more space you have, the more stuff you accumulate to fill it. More is more to most Americans. I now recognize this as an abundance mindset versus a scarcity mindset. A person with an abundance mindset is more easily satisfied, trusting that they have enough and there will be enough in the future if a need were to arise. Whereas the person with the scarcity mindset tends to think: what if I need this or that in the future? What if this or that is unavailable to me? What if there isn’t enough?
But the thing is, we serve the God of the entire universe – the Creator of everything. He promises to meet our every need (Philippians 4:19). So why do we spend so much time filling our empty rooms with things we might need one day? Why do we not trust that our God has made an abundant world of enough – enough space, enough time, enough resources, enough love, enough of everything we truly need.
Our God instructs us that there is such an abundance of time and all resources, that one entire day a week we should not work but instead rest – rest in Him and trust the God of abundance who established Sabbath, that everything that needs to get done, will get done.
Exodus 20:8-10 8“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (NIV)
One day a week, we have been instructed to not work. Yet we can not fathom how this is even possible. There is so much to do and there is so little time. We act as though keeping the Sabbath holy is a luxury we cannot afford. But as it turns out the God we serve is a god of abundance and not scarcity and He will be faithful to us in our obedience to Him.
Matthew 6:31-34 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (NIV)
