Every Blessing in Abundance
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2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work.
I don’t have any problem accepting the first statement in this verse. I do believe God has blessed me abundantly in many ways. Where I struggle is accepting that I always have enough of everything and that I may provide in abundance for every good work.
I guess I’m still discerning where I end and God begins. Honestly I’m still working hard to let go of myself and my own power, strength, wisdom, ability and sufficiency, because none of them are adequate. I may get lucky once in a while and make it through a day without too many problems. I may squeak by a potential disaster that I tried to deal with on my own. I may even be able to string together enough days in a lifetime where life wasn’t too unbearable. It is not until I let go, though that I begin to live in abundance—God’s abundance.
This verse doesn’t promise that we won’t ever want something we don’t have, or for that matter, something we’ll probably never have. I don’t expect to ever win the lottery—it’s just not in my genes. I will never be able to sing on key, no matter how many voice lessons I take. Perhaps there are other, more significant things lacking in your life – a child you will never be able to conceive, or a relationship that is floundering, a job you thought you’d have until you retired that suddenly ended. God doesn’t cause the hard and painful parts of our lives. He does promise to sustain us through them.
That is the abundance promised here. God’s abundance of strength, courage, healing, hope, love and peace will overcome any difficulty in your life. God sustains us through every single day of our lives. As surely as the sun rises every morning, God is at work in our lives and in our world. He created the earth to perfectly sustain and provide for us. It is not until we let go of ourselves, though, that we really begin to live. When we turn over every aspect of our lives to Him we will be abundantly provided for.
Prayer is the only way I know to arrive at the point of surrender. Continual and ardent prayer for God’s abundance in our lives allows us to be filled with the vastness and all-sufficiency of God.
My prayer today is that you recognize the abundant provisions in your life as gifts from God. And that you offer up each moment of your life to His healing, loving, all-sufficient care.
Mary
