God's Blessings

           And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (II Corinthians 9:8)

          The first principle drawn from this passage in my homework was that a life without lack is a gift, not a merely human accomplishment. It’s something given to you with a twofold purpose. The first of those is today’s focus: “God’s sufficiency covers it all – all we need in all our circumstances.”

          The automatic response to this sort of statement follows one of two patterns, both of which begin with a sigh. The words may vary, but the meanings are there. First, “But He didn’t prevent the circumstances,” and second, “But He didn’t miraculously fix the circumstances.”

          I’ve written before about my negative response when a friend said the characters in the first Lord of the Rings movie were noble. Noble? How can they be noble? They’re filthy. I could and should have added that they were whiney, afraid, and, when all combined, not noble. I had the foolish notion that nobility somehow meant “above it all,” or untouched by the unseemly things of the world.

          What if abundancy and sufficiency doesn’t mean “free from the experience of the unpleasantries of life in this world”? What if it’s not about miraculous rescues? What if it has more to do with having what we need to drag ourselves through the muck and the mire without becoming muck and mire in the process?

          When I finished writing the last paragraph, I took a break to refill my coffee mug, and found what was left in the pot filled with grounds. What went through my thoughts was that abundancy and sufficiency doesn’t mean the coffee filter never collapses and coffee grounds never contaminate the pot, but that abundancy and sufficiency involve remembering that there’s a sieve and new coffee filters in the cupboards, and together, they can be used to remove the coffee grounds. It’s a silly example, but it illustrates one way in which God gives us what we need in our circumstances. Quite often, His provision is boring, normal, and learned through experience.

          Since filtering coffee takes time, it also gave me a chance to think. We need to be given all we need for two different settings. God has abundantly provided for our needs with regard to Heaven, but the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and all that it accomplished was only the first step. Consider it as the ticked, passport and funds you need to visit some foreign country in which English is not the primary language. No matter how wonderful the trip there, no matter how much money  you have, your enjoyment of the country will be hampered by your lack of knowledge of the language, the customs, and the procedures needed. But what if you had studied those things before?

          Heaven is a great and wonderful place, but our enjoyment of it is improved by God’s sufficient and abundant teaching of the language, culture, and procedures there. Our time here is a training ground designed to build sufficiency in us and to make our understanding and awareness of the abundance available to us practical.

          But His abundance and sufficiency with regard to the world to come doesn’t help us much here, beyond our understanding that some of what we experience now is part of developing that sufficiency in us. Here and now is the other location in which God’s abundance and sufficiency are needed, and this is where we return to question of the coffee pot. God’s abundance and sufficiency is answered both by the provision of a miraculous coffee pot whose filters never lets coffee through and by our knowing that there are sieves and additional coffee filters in the cupboard.

          This is part of where I am. As I look at the world, I can easily imagine life getting tougher for us – not only Christians, but for everyone. What has God given me that provides abundantly for my needs? First and foremost, He has given me all the good Sunday School answers. He’s given me Himself. He’s given me salvation, justification, mercy, sanctification, reconciliation, love, etc. Those are hugely important, but those are the answers church-folks tend to give.

He’s given me my insufficiencies and limitations so that I can enjoy His provision.

He’s given me a body, mind, soul, spirit, heart and other things that make me myself.

He gave me my history and education, and the ability to learn things both physically practical and spiritually practical. He has given me faith, endurance, perseverance, and hope through the things I’ve faced. And as I try to learn to be ready for tough times, He’s providing and building there, too. It’s not that He  has provided 6 months of food for free, but He’s given me the opportunity to learn to use things He’s provided for free, like Dandelions. And in the process of learning about those, He’s also teaching me patience, because I’d really rather He download the information into my head and make me miraculously proficient at all the skills I want to learn – and instead, I have to learn it the “old fashioned way.” I have to earn the knowledge.