"Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people." Matthew 14:19(NLT)
In 2Timothy 2:15, God encourages us to work hard so that we present ourselves to Him and receive His approval. We are to be good workers of His Word, studying it diligently so we won’t need to be ashamed. If we do as God commands and study His Word diligently, we’ll be able to correctly explain it to others. We are called by God to be skillful workmen of His Word, because a worker that isn’t skillful or faithful might be lazy, and a lazy workman probably will bring shame upon themselves. As believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s not the witness we want to leave. We should never attempt to reinvent the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is perfection as it is. Our task is to make the case of God’s tremendous goodness and do it in a way that is very plain to others. We don’t need flowery or elaborate words. We just need to speak the truth, and in order to do this, we ought to believe it and live it ourselves.
God tells us to study to show ourselves approved by renewing our minds to His Word. We need to do this now probably more than any other time in history. We are bombarded with distractions and busier than ever. Many of us neglect to take time out of our busy schedules to focus on our relationship with God and study His Word. Neglecting relationship-building time with Him means that our faith muscles become flabby and our minds loose firmness when it comes to His goodness. This is particularly true in the area of finances and materiality. Some of us are experiencing tremendous lack, and because we are, we allow our thoughts to shrink back to the way we thought about abundance in the past. We know that Jesus Christ came to give us a more than abundant life, but we don’t feel this is our current reality. We think that God is withholding blessings of abundance, and this simply isn’t true.
Heavenly Father loves abundance, and He loves blessing us with it. All we need to do is go right to the beginning to see this clearly. Genesis 2:4-5(NLT) tells us, “4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the LORD God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil.” This passage demonstrates God’s love for order. He’s God all by Himself. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving and intelligent beyond our comprehension. He can do whatever He wants, and He can structure things however He likes, but His Word shows us that He does things in perfect order. In the six days of creating the earth and heavens, He took things step by step in a very systematic way. For instance, He could have sent rain to water the earth at any time, but His Word tells us that He waited because He had not yet created a human to cultivate the soil.
We can also see that work is an important aspect of abundant living and nature, because God wove it into His plan for the entire earth. He didn’t allow the sky to shower rain until the one who would make the greatest use of it was created. On the fourth day, He said in Genesis 1:20(NLT) “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” He created whales and all living things that scurry and swarm in the water. He also created every kind of bird, and all these creatures produced after it’s on kind. Birds didn’t give birth to baby giraffes, and whales didn’t have baby elephants. Birds produced birds and fish produced fish. Again, we see God’s love of order in this.
He was well pleased with His creations, and Genesis 1:22 tells us that He blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” He pronounced the blessing of abundance on the fish and birds because again, abundance is God’s nature. In Genesis 1:28, He blessed Adam and Eve in the same manner, telling them to be fruitful and multiply; to replenish the earth. God loves to bless us abundantly, and we must never doubt it. Ephesians 3:20(NLT) cosigns this by telling us, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” He will exceed our expectations, but sometimes we don’t see this blessing materialize in our lives, and it’s because we fail to appreciate that God does things with His divine order in mind.
The showers came when Adam received his assignment and instructions from God to cultivate the ground for the harvest. This is God’s order, and He doesn’t violate it. He has made the work of our purpose central to our faith because this work builds our faith. God tells us in James 2:26 (KJV), “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” We can’t please God without faith, and this faith has to have something to back it up. It must be verified. God has given each of us an assignment, a purpose to fulfill. This is the work that builds our faith and motivates us to continue renewing our minds to God’s Word. We must get in alignment with God’s order, this means that the abundance we expect from God should match the abundant nature with which we pursue His Will and plan for our lives.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“God Loves Abundance!” written for victoryinjesuschrist.life© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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