My older sons fight for a very strange office in our household: the cereal police.The cereal policeman plays the important role of making sure that no one person is hogging too much of whatever cereal is the most coveted brand of the month. This self-appointed officer can seemingly measure exact portions and can tell, with only a slight glance at a bowl, if someone has crossed the line. If someone has used too much cereal or had too many bowls of said cereal at one sitting, or even used a few too many splashes of milk, the officer will most assuredly step in, wielding his authority.
Usually, a slight altercation occurs upon accusation and the real authorities are brought in to mitigate the damage. I respond by saying, “There is plenty of cereal. We live in abundance, not scarcity. Your parents know what you need; you can trust us to provide.”
Scarcity and Abundance
As silly as this sounds, the continual appearance of the cereal police role is a source of spiritual conviction in my own life. You see, I must remind myself all the time that our God is a God of abundance, not scarcity.
I fear that there is not enough blessing to go around, not enough space in the infinite heart of our God to make room for all his children. Even worse than questioning the depth of his pantry, I begin to question his heart and intentions. Inevitably, I am tempted to believe the same insidious lies that hooked our forefather and foremother in the garden: God is withholding from me; I need to get my own; I cannot trust His heart and intentions toward me (Genesis 3:1–7).
Sometimes, this belief leads to coveting because we compare and don’t think there is enough to go around (2 Cor. 10:12; James 4:1–2). Sometimes, we covet because the lives of unbelievers seem so much easier than ours (Ps. 73:3–15). But, always, underneath our covetousness, we will find the root sin of discontentment. In Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 80, the Tenth Commandment "requires full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor, and all that is his.”
When we distrust God’s character, intentions, or sovereign ordering of our lives, we repeat the sins of the recently rescued Israelites in the wilderness. Soon after God had shown his power and compassion toward them in passing over them and leading them out of Egyptian slavery, the Israelites’ covetous hearts were exposed. They longed for the meat pots and water of Egypt because they did not trust their God to provide for them presently (Deut. 15:22–27; 16:1–3). Despite their covetous hearts, God provided richly for them out of his abundant mercy.
In one of his final addresses to God’s people, Moses was quick to remind Israel of God’s ample provision for them, that even in a land of real scarcity of resources and water, their clothes did not wear out, they were fed with manna, their feet did not swell (Deut. 8:2–4). Yet, after reminding them of God’s gracious and constant provision, he went beyond physical provision to point out the nature and intentions of Yahweh, the abundant God: He was leading them to a land of plenty and peace, but also choosing them to be his children (Deut. 8:5–9).
When Abundance Experienced Scarcity
The Israelite’s clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell, even in the long wilderness wandering, which they brought upon themselves through their own disobedience. But there was one who always obeyed, who always trusted the good intentions of the Father, who lived not by bread alone but by the very words that came from God’s mouth (Matt. 4:4; John 4:32–34). And yet, his clothes were torn in jest by mocking soldiers (John 19:23). His feet were nailed to the cross of our shame (Gal. 3:13). Because Christ, the son of abundance, experienced scarcity at Golgotha, we can trust God’s heart toward us.
Even as we walk through seasons of seeming scarcity, we know our good God is leading us to something far better than the promised land of Canaan (2 Pet. 3:13). We live as exiles now, but we are bound for the new heavens and the new earth where there will be no lack (Rev. 21:1–4). Knowing the inheritance kept for us is in heaven, we can begin to say with Paul, “I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound” (1 Pet. 1: 3–5; Phil. 4: 11–12). We need not hold tightly to the things of this world when we have Christ. He is eternally enough for us.
