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leftovers. Suppose he had not had those five loaves and two fishes to start with. Do you think he could have still produced a few of them out of thin air? Of course he could. But he wanted to give us an indication of God’s exceedingly ample power to meet our needs even though we have very little. So he took the very little and he multiplied it.
He will supply all your needs. All of them. No need left unmet. And you will find yourself exclaiming, in the words of the Twenty-Third Psalm, “My cup runs over” (v. 5).
God is not stingy. He dwells in magnificent abundance, and lovingly provides for our needs out of that abundance.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. (v. 7) The command to not take God’s name in vain is most often misunderstood as relating to swearing or cursing, especially in ways that ask God to “damn” someone or something, or possibly when a person exclaims, “Oh, God!” While that may be a problem, this is not the issue that the command is addressing. Rather it is dealing with any way of using God’s real name, Yahweh, that is not in accord with God’s real nature. Remember, God’s name is a reflection of his nature,
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Let the worst happen, and God and I will go on together in the abundance of his being.”
If you go to work tomorrow and declare, “I don’t need anything,” people will probably think you are weird . . . very weird. You are supposed to be in need. You are supposed to lack. That’s one of the things that people can use to manage you. But if you go there complaining, griping, groaning, even cursing God, making it known just how much you lack, they will say, “Yes!” They are likely to call you a really good person, the salt of the earth, because complaining is the way of this world.
we will radiate generosity, peace, and contentment.
A child comes into the world and is treated as anything but a precious, wonderful creation. One of the hardest things for us to do—and this is true even for Christians—is to keep this preciousness and wonder in our minds as we approach every human being we deal with.
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There is something about faithfulness and loyalty between people that is precious and beautiful because it is a reflection of what is possible between man and God. The potential of men and women to give up their lives for the glory of God and for the good that God has created is precisely what makes human life great.
Corrie ten Boom confirmed this in her reflections about working in her father’s workshop: “I experienced the miracle that the highest potential of God’s love and power is available to us in the trivial things of everyday life.”
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Eph. 6:10–11) Notice that he did not say “the wiles of your neighbors,” which is where we might think all the world’s problems lie. The real danger lies not with other people; they are not the enemy.
But wanting to look good to others is also a form of the desire of the eyes.
you do not have the option of having a neutral mind. Your thoughts cannot be empty. As the old saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum. If you are not entertaining God’s truth, you will be entertaining Satan’s lies.
Why do good churches go bad?3 It happens because someone in control of ideas is pursuing this result. And it happens—surprise, surprise!—primarily through the desire to look good and the desire to be wise. After all, it is important that our preachers are known to be wise and look good. So we send them off to schools where they get wise and come back looking good.
“How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44). When looking good takes precedence over knowing the good, Satan wins the battle, if not the war.
the faith of sufficiency—the faith that says, regardless of what happens, “It doesn’t matter. I have God, and that is all I need.”
The life without lack is known by those who have learned how to trust God in the moment of their need. In the moment of need. Not before the moment of need, not after the moment of need when the storm has passed, but in the moment of need. For it is in that moment, when everything else is gone, that you know the reality of God. That moment may be a blood-stained one, as with the faithful martyrs of Hebrews 11 or the stoning of Stephen from Acts 7, but it will also be a God-drenched one.
Christianity tends to be presented as if God is our servant, instead of us being his, and God’s greatness and love are not made manifestly clear for the hearer.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
Human desire is infinite by its nature; it cannot be satisfied. You must take your stand against it because you cannot satisfy it. You can never get enough money, if you want money. You can never get enough power, if you want power. You can never get enough love, you can never get enough glory. It is impossible.
One of the interesting—and most common—things you will see when you become like this is that people struggle to believe you are real. Lust, envy, domination, and self-seeking are so pervasive that purity shocks people.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console. To be understood as to understand. To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
―St. Francis of Assisi. All-time favorite quote
if God is going to be with us, we should expect that our lives will be extremely different from ordinary human life.3 That is, our ordinary lives, our day-to-day-at-home-at-work-at-play-maybe-even-at-church lives will be extra-ordinary. We should expect nothing less. Of course, the reality is that most of religion is organized around keeping God at a distance, allowing us to “go see him” when we want. We say things such as, “Lord, this morning we come into thy presence,” to which God might be saying, “Really? Where have you been?” For God has always been present.
Joy comes naturally when we are confident (con-fide, literally acting “with faith”) about who we are and what we are doing. To be with Jesus is to have both.
Rest is an act of faith,
As you engage with others, ask Jesus to bless them. You can consciously will the peace, joy, and confidence that you are experiencing to pass from you, like “living waters,” to those with whom you are interacting. They are flowing from Jesus into you, and you can will them to enter others. Sometimes it occurs by benediction (literally, “good speaking”) and sometimes in complete silence, spirit to spirit. Watch it happen. Trust that God can work in and through you in these ways.
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