Sure You Can Eat All That?
April 26, 2012
We spend a lot of our time teaching that words matter. When it comes to the Word of God, each individual word matters. Sometimes as we strive to walk in a manner worthy, we can actually get tripped up over an interpretation of God’s Word. We read a verse, then “claim” it for a particular circumstance and later become very confused when the outcome doesn’t match our expectation.
Let me give you an example that may be painfully familiar. Two verses – two wonderful, comforting promises from the New Testament we often call upon when our schedules are hectic, time is short, and our daily walk has become more like a sprint.
“And my God will supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
and
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you,
so that always having all sufficiency in everything,
you may have an abundance for every good deed.”
2 Corinthians 9:8
These two verses seem like lifesavers. When we pull these out of our memory banks we breathe a deep sigh of relief. God will supply all our needs! All grace will abound and we will not only get the job done, there will be abundance!” But is that what these two verses guarantee? Again, because every Word of God matters IN our walk with Him, a closer look at these Scriptures will shed some light on a subject vital to our lives – balance. It is true God will supply all our needs and it is also accurate to say God will supply grace and sufficiency for our deeds. But carefully examining the Word, we see exactly what and when He will provide. He will supply our needs, not our wants. The abundance God provides is for every good deed, not every good idea. (See Ephesians 2:10 for an explanation of these deeds.)
Imagine attending a lavish buffet. The warming tables are gleaming and piled high with the most wonderful choices of every kind of gourmet food available. There are meats with rich gravy, vegetables picked at the peak of their season, warm bread with softened butter, and a separate table reserved just for the most delectable desserts. As you approach the buffet line, the attendant hands you a flimsy, thin, single layer paper plate. It’s the kind you might get at a pizza joint – the kind that the slightest error in distribution of weight will cause the plate to collapse and food to fall to the floor. Undeterred, you head toward the line with your plate in hand and you carefully pile on the food.
Now you have a dilemma – standing perfectly still, the plate will hold and not fold. But you know the minute you take a step toward your table you are in danger of a terrible mess. You have overloaded your plate. It would be ludicrous at this point to pray, “Lord, please help me get all this food over to my spot so I can eat too much and feel miserable later.” But that is exactly what we often do with our lives and our schedules. We add more responsibilities, more activities, more stress, and more chaos to our days. Then hoping we can convince ourselves (and maybe even God!) that we have done the right thing, we call on one or both of these verses, praying God will bail us out once again. You cannot walk in a manner worthy if you are too overloaded to take another step.
Is your plate overloaded? Take some time to evaluate your life right now. Is there something you have chosen that is keeping your walk from being a worthy one? (CT)