“Yolly, I’m going to Dollar Tree to win a prize!” Amelia cheered as she bounded into the kitchen waving her dollar bill in her hand. “You mean you get to choose a toy to buy,” her mom corrected with a grin. I was immediately taken back a decade and a half, thinking with a grin of my own about my niece, Ava, who will be married at the end of this year. She was two or three at the time and her mom was her dance teacher. Her tiny troupe danced first and she sat with me and my mom during the rest of the recital until it was time for the awards. She received the same trophy and flower that every girl was given, but as she bounded up the aisle to show me and Grammie, she chanted, “I won first prize! I won first prize!”
Amelia greets me nearly every morning with her familiar question. “Can we do an activity while Ezra is napping, Yolly?” I’m never sure what will excite her on any given day. We bake things, we read longer stories together and we build houses with her magnet tiles while imagining what her new house across the street will be. Some days, we spend two very full hours and Ezra is waking up when she says, “We didn’t get to do any activities.” Scarcity mindset. Focusing on what you perceive is lacking rather than on what you have enjoyed is not just child’s play. Many people, even Christians, too easily forget and often overlook the abundant blessing of our God. I remind Amelia of the activities we have already completed during nap time as her mom heads upstairs to get her brother.
““Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.”
Isaiah 1:18 NASB1995
https://bible.com/bible/100/isa.1.18.NASB1995
Think through your day for a moment. Did you wake this morning with someplace to be? Just to be wakened is a blessing from the hand of God, but having a scheduled appointment to keep means you either have a job, a friend, or someone who is counting on you. There are blessings to be found by those who choose to look.
“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.”
James 1:17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.1.17.NLT
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Romans 8:32 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.8.32.NIV
You can never out give God. All things are His, including everything I own or claim as my own, everyone I love, all the work I accomplish and any praise or recognition I receive. Acknowledging this truth changes how I think, how I speak and act, how I steward what is mine, and how I love.
“You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God,”
2 Corinthians 9:11 NET
https://bible.com/bible/107/2co.9.11.NET
“Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town.
There was a man there named Zacchaeus.
He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich.
He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd.
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.
When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name.
“Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”
Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy.
But the people were displeased.
“He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.
Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”
Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.””
Luke 19:1-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.19.1-10.NLT
Ava’s response to her trophy and Amelia’s excitement over her dollar should characterize every Christ follower. Search the scriptures. We have been abundantly blessed, beyond all we could ask for or imagine and surely beyond what we deserve. The Bible is clear. All have sinned and the wages of sin is death. (Romans 3:23, 6:23) I am destined for God’s wrath apart from Christ, but in Him, I am loved, chosen, forgiven and free!
“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.
This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.
He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.
He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan.
And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.
Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.
And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.
The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.
He did this so we would praise and glorify him.”
Ephesians 1:3-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.1.3-6.NLT
You and I are rich beyond measure! Begin your day with thanksgiving. If you run out of things for which to thank God before your head hits the pillow, pick up your Bible. Comb it from cover to cover. Allow God, by His Spirit, to show you who He is and who you are in Him. Read of His provision for life, for your life, for new life, new hearts, renewed minds and new strength. You will find that you are always rich enough.
“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT
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