Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23

by Dallas Willard

To fear is to be tormented, but to be loved perfectly—and to know it—is to be free of fear’s torment.

Norman Vincent Peale’s recommendation for those caught in fear is to imagine that the worst thing they feared had taken place, and then ask themselves, Where would I be if this actually happened? What would happen to God?3

because of the nature of God and his kingdom, all his created beings and everyone who trusts in him are in a position to say, “Let the worst happen! Let the worst happen, and God and I will go on together in the abundance of his being.”

It is important to realize that God’s power is meant to be at the disposal of human beings.

God is not something to be toyed around with.

I am saying that there is a life in which there is no lack.

The more we place our minds on God’s greatness and self-sufficiency (“beholding . . . the glory of the Lord”), the more we will be transformed from one degree of glory to another. And because our faces are “unveiled” (that is, they have had the lampshades removed) others will see a difference; we will radiate generosity, peace, and contentment.

It literally means a change (meta) of form (morph), as in changing from caterpillar to butterfly, except we are talking about the form of our minds. They are meant to be God-formed rather than world-formed. That is why elsewhere Paul instructed us to avoid being conformed to the ways of the world (or being “normal” rather than “weird”), but that we should rather “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). This is the key to a life without lack, that we would have the mind of Christ—our Shepherd, who knew firsthand the complete and perfect sufficiency of our magnificent God.

Here is my point: just as we have a tremendously difficult time conceiving of or imagining what God is like, so we have a tremendously difficult time imagining what people are really like.

I find it curious that we often speak about people thinking too highly of themselves. I don’t think that I have ever met a person who thought highly enough of himself.

What is it that makes human beings so precious? It is this: they are capable of being faithful to God and committed to the promotion of good in the world.

He is going to create a community of loving, creative, intelligent, loyal, faithful, and powerful human beings, and they are going to rule the earth. It is going to come to pass. If you want to be a part of that, just get on board.

The obviously well-kept secret of the “ordinary” is that it is made to be a receptacle of the divine, a place where the life of God flows.

To promote spiritual life, he says, is not to be more religious where one is already religious: It is to be religious where he is irreligious now; to let the spiritual force which is in him play upon new activities. How shall he open, for instance, his business life to this deep power? By casting out of his business all that is essentially wicked in it, by insisting to himself on its ideal, of charity or usefulness, on the loftiest conception of every relationship into which it brings him with his fellow man, and by making it not a matter of his own whim or choice, but a duty to be done faithfully because God has called him to it. . . . God chose for him his work, and meant for him to find his spiritual education there.

“The Christian finds the hand of Christ in everything, and by the faithful use of everything for Christ’s sake, he takes firm hold of that hand of Christ and is drawn nearer and nearer to Himself. That is, I think, the best method of promoting spiritual life.”3

“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.”4

Our challenge is to fill our hours, minutes, and actions from day to day with the appropriate amount of love for God’s creation and creating, and then work to produce more of the good he has put in this world. This is every person’s calling.

But if we do not work, our lives are wasted because God designed work as a fundamental structure of love in the kingdom of God—something that is meant to bring people together in loving community for mutual benefit and support. What’s more, work is a good thing, and it is a natural disposition of human beings from early childhood on. Work is simply human creativity, a special type of causation through which goodness and blessing can be promoted.

Your work is the total amount of lasting good that you will accomplish in your lifetime. That might include your job, but for many of us, our families will be the largest part of the lasting good we produce.

Today much that is called work is not the use of energy to produce good. In our fallen world we must distinguish between a job and work, because many “jobs” can produce evil. Your job is what you get paid to do, and it might or might not contribute to lasting good. Of course, some of you may be at a point in your life where you do not have a job or do not want one. That’s all right. You still have work to do; you still have the opportunity and responsibility to produce good in the world.

Here is a truth you must never forget: God is more interested in your life than he is in any of the other things listed above. He’s more interested in the person you are becoming than in your work, or your ministry, or your job. And the surest way to realize the full potential of your God-designed self is to live in eternity while you are in time, conscious of the loving gaze of your all-sufficient Shepherd, in whose care nothing of the good you do is lost. It is stored up in your own self and in the lives of others you have touched.

mistrust, anger, and disappointment became the standard quality of human life. Even among those of us who have experienced the grace of God, it is rare to find any man and woman who are bound together in marriage who are truly trustful in every respect, and confident, pleased, and satisfied with each other. Rather, there is a constant testing that goes on, and it is a very serious problem.

There is nothing that makes God happier than human beings, redeemed by the grace of God, devoting their lives—the moments and hours of their days—to the good of others and of creation, to the glory of God. That is our privilege, and the reason we are here. That is what humans are, why God pays attention to us, and why God abides with us. The answer to the psalmist is clear: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” (Ps. 8:4 NRSV). Just God’s greatest treasure in all his created works.

The only way the devil can hurt God is through humans, and so he focuses upon us.

Satan can do nothing about God’s unshakable kingdom directly, but only indirectly through human infirmity and rebellion.

If we are to know the abundant provision of God’s unlimited resources, we must also understand how Satan works to rob us of that experience. He does so by deceit.

He cannot make us do anything we do not want to do. If it is true that a person can be the devil’s puppet, the strings are Satan’s lies.

Deciding to fill our minds with God is how we keep our hearts. To listen to his Word and nourish our whole beings with it is not a nice thing we might do occasionally. Our very lives depend upon it. The psalmist gave us the prescription for life when he declared, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11 NASB). God speaks life-giving truth to us in his Word, which is living and active and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). We need to cultivate a readiness to listen.

When we get up out of bed in the morning, among our first thoughts should be this: Lord, speak to me. I’m listening. I want to hear your voice. This is not because it’s a nice way to start the day, but because the only thing that can keep us straight is being full of God and full of his Word. If you don’t do something like this, 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. This is what happened to each one living in the days of Noah when “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Now contrast that with Jesus.