“(S)he who has a bountiful eye will be blessed…”
You and I are wealthy. We’re wealthy in every sense of the word, not because we believe ourselves to be, not because we make prosperous confessions. We are wealthy because of covenant. God has cut covenant with Himself, and purposed in His great heart to bless His children.
Exactly where you stand, right there in your middle, there is made available to you creativity, ability, and resources. There’s abundant supply for you to accomplish all that needs to be done.
When you can live from this deep, interior sense of supply, the spacious sense of it is the very condition under which you will make the wisest decisions in terms of the management of energy, time, money, influence, and creativity. Your heart will flourish with fresh ideas.
But the faith in abundant supply came first.
In midlife and beyond, the great seduction is to plan around our limits. The sense of scarcity of time and strength feels more real than any sense of God’s covenant of abundance. Pouring forth feels risky.
Such is the middle.
The real risk, however, is found in the withholding.
There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; And there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: And he that watereth shall be watered also himself. (Proverbs 11: 24-26, KJV)
Do we really want to function from a place of feeling perpetually on guard, resisting the spending of ourselves? Which is more exhausting? Guarding or giving? What if we could let go of the fear of lack? What if we could open the eyes of our heart to see a fulsome, poured-out life as something so funky-fresh, compelling, and lovely, that we are suddenly floating in some sort of new glory?
What if our supply was not a puddle, not a pond, but a river? What if your heart could be gripped and filled and ruled by sudden awareness of abundance? I’m speaking this into your spirit, right now, even as you read the words.
What if connection and creativity could be far more effortless than we have let ourselves believe?
And what if it could be fun?
Serving God and others with our time, talent, and treasure could become a lifestyle so filling, so reciprocal and expansive, the world would envy us.
It would feel like an emancipation.
You are not empty. You are not without a thing that you need. To give is to live.
Go forth, and be bountiful.
This line right here, “Which is more exhausting? Guarding or giving?” ...such a good question. Whew. 🩷