Daily Devotion | Day 323
“You [God] crown the year with Your goodness, and your paths drip with abundance” (Psalm 65:11, NKJV).
This is a continuation of our series on “Abundance in the Father’s House.” As we go through this study, I hope you recognize that you are in the Father’s house now. Paul had this to say to the Christians in Ephesus, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). The Church is God’s household and you belong to this house. Therefore, when we speak of abundance in the Father’s house, keep in mind that the abundance in the house is for everyone in the family, including you.
Our opening Scripture from Psalm 65 tells us that God crowns the year with His goodness, and His paths drip with abundance. Yesterday, we saw how Adam and Eve went from a sense of abundance and provision to a sense of lack and insecurity. Today, we will focus on rejecting thoughts of lack and replacing them with thoughts of abundance. We will do so by drawing one lesson from Jesus’s teachings: His message to the disciples regarding the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod (Mark 8:13-21).
In His ministry, Jesus taught the disciples to expect abundance of good things from the Father. He demonstrated this in His own life. And when His disciples entertained thoughts of lack, He did not hesitate to correct them and redirect them to have confidence in the Father’s provision. Thoughts of lack are thoughts of doubt. If allowed to persist, these thoughts become the breeding ground for unbelief. Soon, they will become an obstacle to our experience of the Father’s blessings.
One day Jesus was on a boat with His disciples. The disciples realized they had forgotten to bring bread with them. At the same time, Jesus told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. When they heard this, they started thinking of their lack of bread, for they assumed Jesus was speaking to them about bread. He wasn’t. Jesus was disappointed that they entertained thoughts of no bread. Part of His response was, “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?” (8:17). Jesus used this occasion to (re)teach them about the Father’s provision and abundance.
What He did was remind them of the feeding of the five thousand and of the four thousand. For each incident of provision, Jesus asked them “How many fragments did you take up?” (8:19, 20). They took up 12 baskets and 7 baskets of fragments respectively. Then Jesus said to them, “How is it you do not understand?” (8:21). What was Jesus’ point? He wanted them to stop thinking of lack and instead think of abundance and provision. That was one lesson He was hoping they had learned when they saw Him multiply bread for thousands.
And it is the same lesson Jesus wants us to learn once and for all. Abundance is all around us. If we cannot see it with our naked eye, it does not mean it is not there. With the eyes of faith we can see and access the invisible, for faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Don’t limit yourself with thoughts of lack. Glorify God by entertaining thoughts of abundance. And watch the Father’s goodness overflow in your life.
To be continued tomorrow, God willing.
For further study: Luke 12:22-34 and Psalm 23:1-6
Higher-Self Realities 