“Abundance is not something we acquire.

It is something we tune into.” – Wayne Dyer

A reminder to all of us . . . a longer post, but I hope you find encouraging reminders.

I think we’ve all been there. Challenging days can turn into challenging seasons in life.

Have you ever slumped in a chair thinking, there must be more. We are so prone to feelings of lack. For you, words haven’t directly expressed this feeling of lack – but you’ve noticed that you’ve become snappy with your loved ones. Maybe you lack the energy or the desire to get out of bed in the morning. Maybe it’s just a nagging unsettled feeling you can’t put your finger on? Maybe you desire more out of life but that thought exhausts you at the same time. Life wears and tears sometimes. There are events, people, material pursuits and longings that can deplete the vitality of life. Sadly, we often end up surrendering to this sense of dissatisfaction, but we don’t need to wave a white flag of surrender.

What robs us of a sense of abundance? Sometimes it’s our very own definition of abundance that restricts us. Rick Warren writes, “It is a fatal mistake to assume that God’s goal for your life is material prosperity or popular success, as the world defines it. The abundant life has nothing to do with material abundance, and faithfulness to God does not guarantee success in a career. Never focus on temporary crowns.” Distorted views of living a full life leads to an unfulfilling chase.

My husband is always full of wisdom - I love hearing his take on things. He says, "Abundance in material terms - means a lot: more than enough. But life is not in the material category. In terms of life, abundance is the experience and ability to overcome challenges, hardships - especially with God's help and leading." - Jeff Dahms

I don’t know where your journey has taken you. Parts of my personal path have not been what I would have initially dreamed about as a girl and teen. There are times where I think, it wasn’t supposed to be this way – and yet I know and believe this path has lead me right to where I am supposed to be. There have been lots of challenges and disappointments (and amazing things too, but that’s another post). I’ve had to learn and fight for abundant life through issues like: weight gain & loss, poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, job loss, character defamation, betrayal, business, unfulfilled longings, financial stress and so on. These are things that I have chosen not to allow to overcome me – instead I have had to choose to overcome them. I am a passion driven person – and so I do not want to live with any sense of lack.


Your list may have something similar or different, but we all have to battle to understand and live truly abundant life.  No matter what your story – I think we are all in the same boat seeking abundance and fighting the lie of lack.

We have been conditioned to understand abundance in terms of western consumer culture. I’m pretty sure we all know by now lasting fulfillment hasn’t been found at the bottom of an ice-cream container, the high of a shopping spree, or after falling into a Netflix show hole. It just doesn’t. Even those who understand abundance from a spiritual point of view can easily get caught back into the trap of Hollywood happiness – which leaves you empty instead of full.  In the race of life, our wrong pursuits come from a wrong start line. We can become hoarders of the useless things in life.

There is a saying, strength doesn’t come from the things you can do – it comes from overcoming the things you thought you couldn’t. Let’s re-write that for abundant life: abundance doesn’t come from acquiring more, it comes from enjoying what is truly meaningful and lasting.

In 2016, the top new year’s resolution was to live life to the fullest! Yes, I agree. But to attain that goal, we have to get to the right start line - the path with the right promise, principles and practice.

Last year a group of positive psychology practitioners gathered together with a 30 million dollar budget to analyze the science of living a full life. They highlighted a few obvious things: 1) money doesn’t make people happy 2) more friends or better jobs did not make people happy, and 3) dwelling on negative thoughts and events made people unhappy. However, the summary of their findings I found amusing. It was amusing because they spent a generous amount of time and money discovering what God has already told us about a life of fulfillment.

Martin Seligman described three ways that people try to live happy. The first was a pleasure driven life. The pleasure drive model for living was full of self-driven, instant gratifications with superficial facades that left people dissatisfied. The last two ways of living were more promising. He calls them, “good life,” and the “meaningful life.” The good life is one where a person discovers their signature strengths such as, perseverance, love of learning, leadership, team work, creativity, perspective, bravery, kindness, gratitude, hospitality, spirituality etc. They found when people discovered a sense of gifting and purpose their levels of fulfillment increased exponentially. There was another level of fulfillment they found that if people used their gifts to help others, this led to a deeply meaningful life even more fulfilling than just understanding their gift.  

In the end, millions were spent to affirm the goodness of God’s promises and order for our lives. He has created us with unique gifts and qualities to use for others. In that altruistic (servanthood) approach, we find a sense of richness in life. Ed Stetzer says, “Abundant life is not about what we have. It’s not about what we get. It’s not about what we claim.” It’s about claiming God’s divine and unchanging promises for our lives.


 

The thing is - our God truly loves us. He talks to us about abundance from His love letters. He wants us to view abundance from his eyes and recognize the many things that try to steal it from us. Jesus tells us in  John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Let’s look at a deeper meaning of these two words from their original context:

Life: living with sustenance

Abundance: continuous advantage

I think this is cool – if we live with God as our source of nourishment to the soul – He gives us life with continuous advantage in the face of situations or thoughts that want to destroy our vitality.

The proper starting line for living with abundance is to grasp God’s promise, adopt it as a life principle and live out in practice. We can live a life with sustenance – nourishment from a relationship with God. That includes seeing challenge, suffering, and longing, from his creative and loving perspective. When life looks like it is a famine, the solution is to feast on God’s truth. It’s the way He created us to overcome and no to be overcome. 

As we get our sustenance from that relationship – there is a bi-product that exists even in the face of life railing on us. That bi-product is abundance. It just doesn’t make sense from a human perspective, I know. But that’s why we embrace God’s perspective that opens up divine help for us.

He wants to give us a continuous advantage over those feelings of lack, suffering, illness, life stressors, work-place stress, new mom fatigue, family conflict, strained marriage, unfulfilled dreams, loneliness, depression, etc. 

Our relationship with God is to be the life-line, the fertile ground that gives sustenance to have advantage in all areas of our living.

Promise: He wants to give us abundance life (John 10:10, Matt. 6:33, 2 Cor. 5:17, Ps. 16:11)

Principle: Abundant life happens while staying connected to the one who gives us inner peace, joy, hope and freedom. It is claiming and living out God’s intended reality for our lives in the midst of the pain and struggle of life.  

Practice: There is nothing that can replace communicating with God. Abundance comes from knowing his promise and principles and is activated through a heart to heart relationship with God. Getting our sustenance from a living breathing connection to God gives us advantage over the things that try to steal joy, peace, and hope – leaving us disillusioned, discouraged, and distressed.

Abundant Life Practices:

No white flags. Keep persevering – its leads to character and hope! Romans 5:4

“Abundance is not something we acquire.

It is something we tune into.” – Wayne Dyer