Tuesday-Abundance

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

2 Peter 1:2

There’s a whole lot of talk about abundance these days. It’s not just on Christian stations and websites either. The whole world is caught up in the idea of abundance. Abundance in life. Abundance at work. Abundance with your finances. Abundance in your relationships.

You name it, abundance is yours for the taking. Or, should I say, abundance is there for the asking. All we have to do is ask and it won’t just be given to us, it will pour over the floodgates of heaven and overflow our lives with every color, size, and shape of abundance.

If you think I’m making this up just to make a point, it took me all of three seconds to pull up a list of self-help resources that are pointing people towards abundance. This one, the Abundance Mindset[1], immediately caught my attention. It’s “a way to develop and strengthen your self-belief and self-trust.” It goes on to encourage everyone to “start pursuing the things in life that you want from a place of self-trust and abundance.”

When Peter talks about abundance, he’s got a whole different approach. There’s not even a hint of abundance about things in this life. It’s not all about an abundance of new cars, houses, overflowing bank and investment accounts. Peter points us towards abundance that we can’t touch with our hands.

• Grace. Think about grace as God reaching out towards us. He’s leaning into us. He’s pulling us close. And why? So that he can give us what we don’t deserve. This starts with the forgiveness of all out sins through what Jesus did on the cross, not what we’ve done in this life.

• Peace. We’ve made a royal mess out of our lives. All the different pieces of life are tangled and broken. Peace is the ongoing process where God puts them all back together again. One by one, he reconnects all the broken strings of our life to make it better than new.

But God’s not in the business of just giving us some grace and peace. He’s not limited in the amount of grace and peace he can give. Not on your life. God gives an abundance of grace and peace. It’s overflowing grace and peace. It’s more grace and peace than we can possibly imagine. More than we can ask for or even think about[2].

When God gives, he’s not limited like we are. We can only give what we have. But since God owns everything[3], there’s no limit to what or how much grace and peace he gives. And when you add that to the fact that he’s generous, you can rightfully say that God is a God of grace and peace abundance.

I know exactly what you’re thinking. Do you know how I know? Because I’m thinking the exact same thing. If God’s this great and abundant giver of grace and peace, then how come my life’s not overflowing with grace and peace? Nobody’s coming up to me and filling my life with grace and peace. It seems like I’m in a wilderness when it comes to grace and peace.

We’re looking to be filled with grace and peace. But the road to abundant grace and peace isn’t through receiving. It’s not some spiritual drive-thru where we order up grace and peace while on the run. Not on your life. Peter tells us that they come through another way.

God’s path towards abundance of his grace and peace is through getting to know God more and more. This isn’t just filling our heads up with more and more Bible stuff, but letting who God is change our words, thoughts, actions, and attitudes. When we see his power, his perfection, his love, his kindness, his righteous, it will absolutely change the way we live.

But we also have to let the life and words of Jesus change us. Look at the way he treated people. You know which people I’m talking about. The sinners. The prostitutes. The tax collectors. He received and loved people who didn’t deserve him. He listened and spoke words of love to draw them in.

I can’t speak about anyone else, but this just breaks my heart because I’m so impatient with people. God’s been so kind and patient with me, and yet I’m so demanding of them. How dare they waste my time with so many unimportant things. Don’t they realize how important I am?

Maybe this is why I don’t have an abundance of grace and peace in my life. It’s time for me to get down on my knees and ask forgiveness. If Jesus was willing to humble himself to pay for my sins, then it’s not a big deal for me to give up my pride to the one who loves me. Who was arrested and beaten for me. Who went to the cross for me. Who died for me. Maybe I’m not the only one reading these words who needs to do the same thing? Together, let’s give up our selfishness so we can experience his abundance.

Noodling Questions

• Is abundance one of the words you experience in your life? Explain?

• What’s holding you back from abundance of God’s grace and peace?

• How does God want you to change so his grace and peace are in abundance?

[1] https://www.headspace.com/mindfulness/there-will-always-be-more-overcoming-scarcity-mindset

[2] Ephesians 3:20

[3] Psalm 24:1