Suggested Readings: Psalm 32, Joshua 4:14-24, 2 Corinthians 5:6-15
OK, two truths and a lie time.
1. I am a morning person
2. I graduated from Belmont in 2022
3. When I’m at a restaurant and my food is especially good, I downplay it so that no one asks me for a bite.
Unfortunately, number three is not a lie, and I have found myself on more than one occasion falling victim to the scarcity mindset. I was first introduced to this concept in, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey in which he describes people with a scarcity mindset as seeing life with only having so much, “as though there were only one pie out there and if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else.” I heard more about this concept in Lysa Terkeurst’s book, Uninvited, in which she discusses the antithesis of scarcity, abundance. She writes,
Those who live with an abundance mentality, who operate out of a deep knowing of their immeasurable worth, live loved.
We see the abundance of God‘s grace in Psalm 32 where David confesses to the Lord , and the Lord responds back with not only forgiveness, but “unfailing love to those who trust the Lord.” Again we see the abundance of God in Joshua 4, after God performed a miracle in the Jordan, He instructed Joshua to take 12 men, one from each tribe of Israel, to carry the ark of the Lords covenant out of the Jordan River bed. They placed them as a mark of where God dried up the river before them. I think it’s important to note that God could have instructed Joshua to only move one stone and still commemorated the miracle. Instead, the Lord used 12 people, to remind each tribe of Israel that God was with them ALL. For generations to come, every tribe of Israel would know what the Lord had done for them.
The Lord is moving in ways that we can’t help but respond to. His unfailing love and provisions are seeing generation after generation. 2 Corinthians 5:15 sums this up pretty well when it says, “He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them..”
We do not get to decide if we are worthy to receive this gift, because we aren’t …and yet it has still been given, because our God is a God with a pie for everyone. Let us move forward with the heart that God gives us of abundance to love and be loved to share our greatest blessings, even yummy food with others.
Shannon O’Donnell
