An Abundant Life

Before we lived in a parsonage we owned a house behind downtown Jonesborough in a little subdivision with lots of kids. Many nights, right about dinner time, several of my oldest daughter’s friends would be at our house. Most of the time they just ate with us, but there were times that I was thinking, “Can’t ya’ll go home to eat?”

                That was the same thought that Jesus’ disciples had one evening. Jesus had been preaching all day and a crowd of thousands of people had gathered to hear him. But as it got later in the day people started to get hungry. You know how you feel at high noon every Sunday right? You’ve been listening to the preacher for 20 minutes and you need something to eat! These people had probably been listening to Jesus all day, and now it was dinner time. What would they do?

                This story is told in the gospel of Mark 6:34-44. Take a few minutes to read this amazing story….

                The disciples wanted to send the people away. Jesus wanted the disciples to feed them. The disciples were focused on the problem. Jesus was focused on the people. The disciples were focused on the fact that there wasn’t enough. Jesus wanted them to give and trust Him to provide, a lesson that there is always enough with Jesus.

                When I was growing up we ate most of our meals thanks to food stamps. Not the little EBT credit card looking thing now, but the old paper stamps in the book. I am thankful for that. But I grew up thinking that there was never enough. I grew up thinking that at some point we would run out. There was always more month than money. There never seemed to be enough.

                This is called a mindset of scarcity. It is a belief that leads to consumption that leads to lack that leads to fear. This is where the disciples were that day.

                “Send them away”, they said. When we are focused on the problem that is our response. We can’t help them, we don’t have enough. Send them away. Send them to another place. Send them to another church. We don’t have enough.

                But Jesus responds with a great question (He always has a way of doing that doesn’t He). Jesus asks, “How much do you have”.

                Jesus is not asking us to give more than we have, just to trust Him with what we do have.

                And the disciples, thanks to a young boy in the crowd, scrounge up 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Not exactly enough to feed thousands of people, is it?

                But here’s the deal. That thought is from our mindset of scarcity.

                Jesus looks at this from a mindset of abundance. This is a view that there will be enough. This is not fear, this is faith. This is trusting God, with something that seems like not-enough, with something that seems inadequate, and trusting Jesus to do something amazing with it.

                We serve a God of abundance. We are called to be people who live in this life of abundance. I am not exactly talking about material things here, but I do think we need to look at the luxuries we have in this time and place we live in compared to previous generations and compared to others around the world today.

                Jesus said “I came to give them life, and life in abundance” (John 10:10).

                We live an abundant life when we trust in Jesus as our Lord, when we view Jesus as enough in our lives, and as we freely give to others in need, because God will continue to provide for us as He always has.

                And then those people that ate the fish and bread, “everyone ate and was satisfied” (Mark 6:42).

                May you be satisfied in the abundance of grace and love your heavenly Father is pouring out on you today, and may you be a conduit to share this with others in the name of Jesus.