Reframe Your View of God: Day 37

Reframe Your View of God

…abundance, not scarcity

Reframe Your View of God… Day 37 of our 40 Day Journey. Several years ago I was lamenting the life of someone I was counseling. It didn't seem like they would ever climb out of the hole they were in. Then I remembered Psalm 23 where David said of God, "...he restores my soul." It struck me that those words were either true or false.

Did I believe God was a restorer of souls or not? I believe he is. So, why don’t some people change?

The God of Scarcity

I'm convinced that many people stay stuck in exile because of a low view of God. For whatever reason, they don't believe God is a restorer of souls, and they pay the price for it.

My last recommendation for reframing has to do with choosing to see God as a god of abundance, not scarcity.  Will you look at life expecting God to show up in a big way? Or will you assume the worst? 

Scarcity is about fear. You are afraid there won’t be enough: enough money, enough love, enough time, enough forgiveness: whatever it is you feel you need in life. 

Scarcity focuses on what little you have; it’s all you’ll get, and if you aren’t careful you will even lose that.

Scarcity is about walls and locks and secrets and hiding because you can never be too careful to guard your meager holdings.

The God of Abundance

Abundance is the opposite. Abundance is about hope.

Abundance sees opportunities when others are cutting back and preparing to throw in the towel.

Have you ever noticed how many seeds a tree throws off every year? Literally thousands. One tree shed enough seeds to create a forest. God has wired abundance into his creation. If he’s done that for trees, won’t he do it for his children?

Showing Contempt for God

In the wanderings of the Sinai Wilderness, God’s people doubted his goodness. They doubted he would meet their needs. God responded:

How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? Numbers 14:11

When I have a scarcity mindset I hold God in contempt. I tell him he’s not enough. He is not sufficient for my need.

Paraphrasing, God responded by saying: Okay. It’s your choice. If you don’t think I can help you overcome the obstacles then fine, don’t enter the Promised Land.

And in fact, they didn’t enter. They wandered in the Sinai Peninsula for forty years.

It didn’t have to be that way. They had a choice.

Trusting the Goodness of God

In contrast to their contempt for God was Abraham. He believed in a God of abundance: the God of resurrection. Paul wrote that Abraham believed in:

…the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations …Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." Romans 4:17-22

We serve the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

I know there are exceptions. I know that all stories don’t end in resurrection and deliverance in this life. But God is a god of abundance. Why not expect the best? Why not expect something amazing…even if that’s an amazing sense of peace and joy in your exile?

Maybe you are in a hopeless place. But did you see what Abraham did? It says… against all hope, Abraham believed in hope… 

You are not a fool to hope. You are a person of faith.

Do you see God as a God of abundance or scarcity? Be honest.  What will it take to renew your hope in the God who gives life to the dead?

These forty days of devotionals are adapted from my book, Return from Exile… available on Amazon.com.

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