Everyday Abundance

It was early morning on a Sunday, and I could hear rain falling on the roof, gurgling in the gutters, and tapping against the windows. As I read in my Bible, this verse stood out to me:

“Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance, when it was weary.” Psalm 68:9

In the context, the verse refers to a specific historical event, but that morning, I felt all the personal blessing of a plentiful rain. It had been a busy week, and the rain meant a few extra minutes, since I wouldn’t have to water the garden that day—especially helpful since I would have had to water the garden in the dark, which I do not enjoy.

The plentiful rain was a blessing, a confirmation of God’s love and care, not in a moment of dire distress, but on an ordinary Sunday morning when I was feeling just a bit weary.

As I write this, I am sitting in a parking lot. It is just a parking lot, but today it has the added beauty of blue sky, orange and yellow leaves, and a stiff breeze ruffling the surface of a nearby pond and sending loose leaves floating this way and that. I have just finished the home-cooked dinner I heated up at school before heading off to snatch a few moments of quiet before the busy evening. I have all the beauty of early fall before me, and in this moment, I can set aside everything else and just be still. It is a moment of abundance.

Jesus made it clear that the Christian life won’t always be characterized by abundance in the sense of riches or an easy life—In fact, He tells us that it will be exactly the opposite! (John 16:33) But I have been challenged recently by the truth that God gives us far more abundance than we give Him credit for.

Perhaps, like me, you are prone to gulping down your food in a rush to get to the next thing in your schedule, instead of stopping to acknowledge your Provider with more than mere words, hurriedly mumbled before (or around) your first bite.

But God’s abundance deserves to be recognized!

There’s something I’ve been doing lately that might seem strange, but it has been remarkably helpful in this matter of taking time to be grateful instead of just saying words. When I sit down with my food, I try always to take time to thank God for each ingredient (at least the ones I remember at the moment), instead of thanking Him for “this food” in general. It might be an odd thing to do around a dinner table, but when I’m eating on my own, it makes me slow down and think about the food I am eating, and my loving God who provided it for me.

If you do a search on “abundant” in the Bible, the first few verses that come up are from the account in Genesis 1 of God’s creation. The fish, the animals, the people, all were to be fruitful and multiply to fill the earth—to thrive in abundance. But sin came, and poverty, lack, and want marred God’s abundant creation.

In a sense, our little mundane moments of abundance are echoes of Eden, reminders of how God designed things to be. The peace, the beauty, the delight of good food, the luxury of rest—all are reminders that God did create a perfect world, and although it is now marred by sin, that is not the ending. One day, we will enjoy the perfection of the new heaven and the new earth, in the presence of God Himself.

Abundance is a gift from God, to remind us what He is like. Look at this beautiful passage from Psalm 36:

“Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.” (vv. 6-9)

It's a simple thought, dear Reader, but how is the Holy Spirit using it in your heart today? Do you need to take time to consider His provision and be thankful? Or do you need the reminder to look for those echoes of Eden that draw our hearts to the bigger picture of life with God?

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 

1 Peter 1:3-5