God of Abundance

This year I'm trying to meditate on God's abundance.  I keep reminding myself that our God is not a God of scarcity.  I can have confidence that He will "meet all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:19)

I'm copying a list of Bible verses that confirm this abundance.  Here are a few of those gems--

Psalm 36:8 "They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights."

Psalm 37:19  "They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance."

Psalm 66:12  "You made men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, yet you brought us out into a place of abundance."

Isaiah 63:7  "I shall make mention of the lovingkindness of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has granted them according to His compassion and according to the abundance of His lovingkindness."

I mentioned here on January 21st that our team decided to trust God for 30,000 shoeboxes at our packing party this year.  The next morning I picked up my Bible where I'd left off previously and was surprised to read 2 Chronicles 35:7 "Josiah contributed to the lay people...flocks of lambs and young goats, all for the passover offerings, numbering 30,000..."  It was neat to see that 30,000 number in God's Word, and it was a confirmation to me.

I really need to be assured this is God's will for us, because if it's His will I know He will provide all we need.

In his book "The Knowledge of the Holy" A.W. Tozer speaks of God's omnipotence, "Omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal God whom we Christians believe to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all who believe on Him to life eternal. The worshiping man finds this knowledge a source of wonderful strength for his inner life. His faith rises to take the great leap upward into the fellowship of Him who can do whatever He wills to do, for whom nothing is hard or difficult because He possesses power absolute."  Wow! -- He is absolute abundance.

We don't have as many items for our boxes at this point as we did at this time last year, and some of my usual outlets for good deals have not yielded much lately.

Still, week by week God encourages me with donations of stuffed animals...or the 7,000+ large heavyweight ziplock bags (16" X 20") that we will roll up and use as fillers for shoebox recipients to store their items.

Just a few days ago we received a donation of 67 new T-shirts (pictured above) from an orthopedic office. They all say "Proud owner of a new knee (or hip) replacement" but they're clean and new.

We don't have our date set yet, but God answered prayer this week as we got the list of shipping dates from the OCC office.  We've chosen our preferred date and sent an email a few days ago to the church that has allowed us to use their facility to see if they can accommodate us.

Now we wait.

We wait for confirmation of a date. And we wait for God to provide at least 50,000 inexpensive pencils, and 27,000 stuffed animals, and 240,000 crayons and maybe 60,000 more good-sized filler items.

Our message in church this morning was about confession.  I have to confess I often struggle with coveting the good deals others get on shoebox items.  I'm so grateful for forgiveness for that.

I'm grateful also for God's mercy in reminding me He will provide for me and our team in the time and the way He knows is best.

Because...He is a God of abundance.