Abundance or scarcity?
‘I have come that they
may have life, and have it to the full’ John
10 v.10
This time of year speaks (shouts, even) of life - everything
in our gardens drinks in the rain, soaks up the sun and reaches up to
heaven. 'Creation sings the Father’s
song', and it is a song of abundance and overflowing generosity.
If we see the world in terms of scarcity, then we will
believe that there is ‘not enough to go around’ – a mindset that will apply not
just to material things but to love, forgiveness and grace; we will know fear,
which in the end will shape our lives and control us. This is personified by
Jesus as ‘Mammon’ (Matthew 6:24) – a
master who in the end will demand our worship to the exclusion of the worship
of God.
The biblical picture is one of abundance, and God is the Creator
who has poured out his love and abundance in Creation and in Salvation. In
Genesis we see God repeatedly saying ‘Let there be’, and the earth and heavens
are filled and teem with abundant life; the experience of God’s people time and
again in the Old Testament is of a God who provides in plenty for his people as
they look to him in trust. Justin Welby contrasts ‘Mammon’ with ‘Manna’;
pointing us to the God who provided abundantly for his wilderness people each
day. The God of Creation is the God of abundance, not of scarcity.
This Easter we will celebrate again the God of our
salvation, and the greatest revelation of God’s abundance – in his overflowing love,
grace and forgiveness as Jesus gives up his life (not grasping but giving up),
so that we can look to him and discover new life, ‘life in all its abundance’.
We’re called to be transformed by our experience of God’s
generosity in Christ – to be those whose lives speak (shout, even) of our
confidence in his abundance. Will we let go of a scarcity mindset, and risk
living generously in and for Christ, for the sake of the world that is in the grip of Mammon?
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