Do You Truly Understand Abundance?
Today, there are many people with financial mind viruses and distortions over how to create and understand the nature of wealth. It is amazing how many people fall into quick and deep despair when their finances go awry.
Now you may be a person who never had much money. (Most people on the planet can say “Amen” to that). It’s not uncommon when you don’t have much money to blame your financial woes on your parents, your education, your spouse, your kids, your previous employer, the world financial crisis, or bad luck. We can always find someone to blame!
However, if you carefully analyze what’s holding you back, you may discover that money trouble has followed you throughout your life, no matter what your environment has been. You may be reinforcing your misguided beliefs while talking with others by complaining, “I can’t ever get ahead. Something is always against me.”
Do you realize God is a God of abundance? If you come from a poor background, it may be harder for you to believe it, but it’s true. God is the Creator of the universe and the ultimate giver. Everything we have and everything we are comes from Him. He isn’t stingy. He delights in blessing His children. Moses reminded the people of Israel:
“But remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your ancestors, as it is today” (Deuteronomy 8:18).
I used to think abundance was available only to the lucky few. At some point, though, I realized it’s part of the overflow of God’s love and is available to everyone.
Abundance is yours for the asking. But we need to be very careful. In our culture, greed is a destructive epidemic that can easily degenerate into depression when our schemes do not materialize.
“Has money, power, comfort, and success brought me the satisfaction I believed it would?”
If you feel like you must have these things to be happy, then you’re too attached to them. Greed isn’t limited to a particular economic class. Poor people can be consumed with the desire for some, and rich people long for more.
If we stop and pay attention, we may realize God has already poured out His riches of abundance on us.
Psychotherapist and author Dr. Wayne Dyer tells an excellent story about two fish in the ocean to illustrate how important it is to perceive how wealthy we are already in Christ.
“Excuse me,” said one ocean fish to another, “you’re older and more experienced than I, and will probably be able to help me. Tell me: where can I find this thing they call the ocean? I’ve been searching for it everywhere to no avail.”
“The ocean,” said the older fish, “is what you are swimming in right now.”
“Oh, this? But this is only water. What I’m searching for is the ocean,” said the young fish, feeling quite disappointed. [1]
You and I have been immersed in God’s vast ocean of blessing and abundance. You don’t have to keep trying to find it—you’re there! Take a moment to read the Book of Ephesians and you’ll see how blessed you are in God. Truly letting this reality sink into your heart can give you a thankful heart in all situations and a natural resistance to despair.
Thank you for reading. Please share if this could help someone else.
[[Article excerpted from my book entitled, “Mind Viruses: Identifying and Replacing Toxic Thinking.”]]
[1] Wayne Dyer. You’ll See It When You Believe It. (New York: Morrow Paperbacks, 2001), p. 158.