Provisions: More than enough

An anchor through abundance

Is having more than enough bad?

We live in a world where we connect having things, people, connections and processions to comfort. We can easily associate the more we have to more options and more options to more influence and power. This perception can truly limit God’s work in our life. This is true in a since when we allow it to be. I believe anything that we allow to dictate our decisions other than God, is an idol. There was a story that Jesus told in the Bible of someone asking him what will it take to follow him(Christ). He is called “The young rich ruler”. Christ asks the young ruler if he has kept the commandments and the gentlemen replied “ I have since my youth.” Then Christ asks him to give up all he had to the poor and come and follow him. Unfortunately, that was a check too big for him to write. The young ruler was ruled by what he had. He felt if those things were gone, so was his power, influence, and control. He would be giving up his “options”.

Therein lies the problem. When we are scared to give up control to God, give up options for the one option that is God or just simply give up perceived power for real power through Christ, we have made having more than enough a bad thing. On the other hand, there was Joseph in the book of Genesis. He went from slavery to prison. From prison to the palace, then back to prison and then once again the palace. Through all of that, he ended up with all of the resources he could ever want and need. However, what he had learned through the peaks and valleys of life was, God is always best as the anchor. When we create a habit of making objects and people our anchor and we get more things, we begin to make those our anchors as well. Unfortunately, those things change and are fleeting. However, when we make God our anchor, no matter what comes and goes, God is and will always be the same. When the time came for him to give up of what was his “more than enough”, it was easy. He knew it wasn’t his to keep but God’s to give. That perspective allowed him the bless others. So what am I saying? Pretty much, our anchor during those seasons of “more than enough” will influence whether it is a good thing for a bad thing for us.

When more than enough goes bad

• When we make Things our anchor

An anchor is simply something that keeps an heavy object from moving. The key to an anchor being a functional is its stability. Once its put down it wont move nor will it allow the object that it is attached to. However, in this fleeting world, the only thing constant is change. Not only do we change but those around us change and since all of us change what we do and what we have will also change. So when I make a person my anchor and they change, my ship moves. When I choose my job as my anchor, I get fired or just have a bad day, my boat moves. Our anchor should be God and God alone because He never changes.

• When we become possessed by what we possess

There are times when we have become so attached to what we have, that sustaining them becomes our focus. When we become so attached to things we can begin to identify with them. Anything or anyone that has the potential of taking or disturbing what we have becomes a threat. This can become so bad that we begin to manipulate, lie, cheat, hide and sacrifice relationships to maintain what we have. We make our life’s purpose about what we have not what we are doing.

• When we believe what we have is a sense of power and control

We can sometimes have so much of something we can develop a “god complex”. Not many will outright say it, but that’s what it is. When I have enough to make up and cover mistakes and flaws, I can easily feel I don’t need God. When something goes wrong I can just buy a new one. When something hurts, I just become busy. We can easily become self-medicated and not prayer medicated. The primary need for God in my life is my powerlessness, what I don’t know, and giving over what I have to someone who can show me how to use it and not let it use me.

When more than enough goes good

• When we know there is only one true anchor

When we realize God is the only and true anchor, we won’t lose our mind as things and people change around us because they certainly will. We only know God as the true anchor when we spend time with him and look for him in all of our situations. When we look for God, we will find him. When we trust God, we won’t be scared when our fears or the threat of man come for us. We will know God is sovereign.

• We wear things loosely because we know our role

The easiest way to ensure we make God our anchor is to know our role. I must realize and remember, I am nothing without God. I must know that God blessed me to be a blessing to others. The blessing just helps me on the way to someone else. How can I hoard what God gave me? I was blessed by someone but then it stops with me because I think its mine. We must remember “The earth is the Lords, the fullness thereof and they that dwell therein”. The second we lose sight of God being the source and think we’re the source, we will deplete ourselves; using up all the resources he gave us, then our reserve,s never being refilled.

• When we know true power and sovereignty are God’s

When I believe God is all-powerful and in control, I won’t worry when people and things leave my life. I will remember that God can provide new provisions just as he has already done. When Abraham was instructed by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, he understood when Isaac was gone, God could raise him back up. We must have that same perspective. God can and will restore. However, the problem comes when we don’t trust Him and we think we must provide for ourselves. We think if we don’t provide for ourselves no one will. God wants us to cast our cares on Him because he cares for us. As we know God, we will know things will come and go but He can restore them all.