Overabundance 
By Becky Rule

God has been leading me to discover some things about my subtle attitudes of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. A thought from my daily calendar recently said: "Once we have it made, once we get fat with the overabundances of life, we see little need to depend upon the Shepherd. We get caught up in things." The thought wasn't new to me; riches and the world's distractions subtly ease their way into our lives. This time, however, it struck me that "overabundance" has a direct spiritual application from a different slant. A speaker at a recent conference I was at shared how God had shown him that He cannot birth and grow anything in our hearts that we believe we already possess. I have found it also applies to those things which we deceitfully hope we possess or are working to attain. Jesus cannot be to us what we think we already are. He cannot become to us what we believe we already have or are working to overcome From this perspective, the previous statement might look like this: Once we believe we have all of Jesus that we need, once we get fat with the religious overabundances of life, we see little need to depend upon the Shepherd. We get caught up in things-our spiritual condition, obedience, service, fruit, doctrines and traditions, worship, etc."

Since the greatest commandment is on love, I'll use it as an example. To be loving, one would think we must know the loving thing to do. That might mean knowing a principle to apply or specific actions to take depending upon the circumstance. God is in the process of teaching me that to be loving is not for Him to give knowledge and motivation toward acting loving or doing the loving thing, but to allow Him to be my love. I am not loving. Since there is nothing good in me, the best I can do is to act loving and do loving things-which is never consistent and gives only the appearance or impression of love. My best pales in comparison to the One who is Love itself.

Have you had someone come to you and say, "I have something to give you. Would you like it?" Sometimes our response is, "Thank you, but I already have some of that. Give it to someone who needs it." Can you hear how that resembles the Pharisees…and ourselves? I have found that to be my attitude too often. I have an underlying belief that I already have the Jesus I need or enough Jesus to meet my needs. Yet we believe that as responsible caring Christians, we are to give Him to someone who NEEDS Him. I've heard it said that the primary reason there is so much pain in the Christian community is because God is bringing us to the end of ourselves. Or in the words of the writer of Proverbs: "Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him."

Because we have the privilege of the Scriptures, we can see how Jesus interacted with the Pharisees. It seems so obvious to us that He was the Messiah, yet they did not see who He was. Like the astonished disciples in Matthew 19 I ask, How can that be?! They were spiritually rich-they were disciples of Moses; they followed the commandments; they were trained, knowledgeable, disciplined men! Yet in Matthew 19: 23 Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven…." I know in my heart how it can be and it brings a fuller meaning to certain verses about denying and receiving Jesus.

Now, how can this all fit together with Mike's "Duty or Devotion" thoughts from last week? If Christ is my life and it is no longer I who live, it is HE who is responsible to maintain, nurture and grow that life. We are to respond and receive. Personally, we have found it takes much spiritual exertion to trust Him to change our hearts, purify our motives and wait while He grows us in HIS time. Our constant temptation is to do the things that would look appropriate--things that would prop up our image and avoid the humiliation of appearing irresponsible, unloving, backsliding and any other number of things. It takes remarkable effort to wait upon Jesus, trusting Him while He gets to the ROOT of the issues in our lives, enduring until He sees fit to heal the things about ourselves that torment us, or until He explains that His grace is sufficient. Our flesh impatiently screams that it shouldn't take so long, that He isn't doing enough, that we should be trying harder, and that we are deceived and misled. We fear looking unspiritual, causing others to stumble, and being spiritually ruined. When our minds and emotions are screaming, it is difficult to deny ourselves and NOT act.

Jesus stopped to ask the two blind men sitting by the road, "What do you want Me to do for you?" Let's join them in saying, "Lord, we want our eyes to be opened," that the light in us may not be darkness. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven….Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 21, Luke 11, and Matthew 5)