The Spirit of Abundance

SYNOPSIS: We can live with a spirit of scarcity that believes and acts from the mindset that what I have is mine; that I need to protect it; that to give it away means a negative on the profit/loss sheet of my life. Or we can live the way God created us to live: from a spirit of abundance. God’s Word tells us that he is the giver of everything we have anyway, and we are to trust him with it. Trust, then, leads us to live with a loose grip on what we have; a loose grip that opens the hand and generously gives it away. Likewise, trust is convinced of God’s promise that as we live generously open-handed, he will make sure our hands are always full.

Going Deep // Focus: Deuteronomy 24:19-22

When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do. When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command.

One of the first social interactions we experience as human beings is in the sandbox. And the first words of that interaction go something like this: “Mine!” Then we grab our toy and clutch it tightly to our chest. From then on out, we get pretty good at being selfish, which is no surprise since we get a lot of practice at it throughout the rest of our lives. The reason for this is that being self-focused was rewired into our DNA at the fall. You see, the essence of sin is to tend to what self wants instead of what God wants. And of course, that leads to selfishness in every area. It is just the drift of the natural man. That is why David prayed,

Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. (Psalm 119:36)

But there is a better way—selflessness. To be unselfish means to be God-focused and others-oriented. And to be God-focused and others-oriented requires our trust that God will supply what he calls us to give away, a mindset of abundance that is convinced there is more than enough, and the obedience of generosity that opens the hand and releases what we possess. Trust, abundance and generosity—the antithesis of sin, the polar opposite of selfishness.

We can live with a spirit of scarcity that believes and acts from the mindset that what I have is mine; that I need to protect it; that to give it away means a negative on the profit/loss sheet of my life. Or we can live the way God created us to live: from a spirit of abundance. God’s Word tells us that he is the giver of everything we have anyway, and we are to trust him with it. Trust, then, leads us to live with a loose grip on what we have; a loose grip that opens the hand and generously gives it away. Likewise, trust is convinced of God’s promise that as we live generously open-handed, he will make sure our hands are always full.

This is the cycle of abundance is the law of the universe. It is an immutable law. It says that the more we give away, the more God gives us to give away. But we have to trust God to give us more, or we will hold back what we have in fear, selfish and from an impoverished spirit of scarcity.

God was calling the Israelites to live from a spirit of abundance in Deuteronomy 24:19-22. They were to give generously and intentionally so that others would receive blessings through them as if it were from God himself, which had been what Israel had experienced during their time of need. God was now calling them to be the conduit of generosity, and the call came with a promise: “Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.”

That is God’s call to you and me, too. To be open-handedly, proactively, intentionally generous. And he has promised to meet our spirit of abundance with heavens abundance. Like the Israelites, he wants to make us a conduit of ridiculous generosity, so that the more we give away, the more he will give us to give away.

The spirit of abundance—it takes trust, but it is a terrific way to live.