Abundance

The following question was in an email I received from Thrive!:

Do I have an abundance of the things I need to live comfortably?
The term "comfortable" means different things to different people. Make it a goal in your life to not aim for "enough," but to have "more than enough" of what you need -
whether it's time, money, love, space or other precious resources. When you live in abundance, you can focus more clearly on what you want. It empowers you to share yourself, your time, talent, and love more generously.

I did not like this question. I think it implies that we should be striving to increase the resources we have instead of being content with less. I do feel like I have everything I need to live comfortably, because I choose to live below my means. Sugar Pop and I were discussing houses and house payments last night because one of his co-workers is house hunting. When we bought our house, we could have qualified for a bigger house (and a bigger house payment). But because we made the decision to buy a less expensive house, we have more discretionary income to spend on other things and to be able to give more. Because we choose to limit the activities were are involved in, we have more time to spend together and with family. Because we don't have "shows" we must watch on television, we aren't tied to the television schedule. I love living simply and I want to continue to simplify my life because it frees me and enables me to be content with less.

Having God's "Unreasonable" Faith

"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matthew 6:33

When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. "...seek first the kingdom of God..." Even the most spiritually minded of us argue the exact the opposite, saying, "But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed." The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God, but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.

"...do not worry about your life..." (6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed - no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, "Don't make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God." Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of the life is to place our relationship to God first, and everything else second.

It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.