Living in Abundance: Expanding Beyond Anxiety & Scarcity
We live in anxious times! The Covid epidemic brought about a universal sense of angst that settled across the entire world. Despite improvements in our country’s economic stability, our collective consciousness has become focused on shortages, dysfunctional supply chains, and ever-increasing prices because of inflation. While income has increased because of a shortage of employees; the price increases fueled by disruptions in the supply chain and corporate greed have gobbled up those pay raises.
The World Health Organization noted in March 2022 that the Covid pandemic increased rates of depression and anxiety by 25 percent. Changes in the work environment, social isolation, and lack of support from family and friends caused this sharp increase. Add to these stressors people’s fear of infection, grief over loss of loved ones, and financial concerns; is it no wonder that we all live in fear of scarcity?
Changing from a Scarcity to Abundance Mindset:
Jesus knew you would worry about everyday things. Things like paying the mortgage or rent, feeding your children, and ensuring you have adequate clothing. These are normal thoughts and worries that pervade our modern-day culture. Yet, Jesus was very clear in his teaching that worry and fret regarding scarcity would distract from your spiritual growth.
Learning not to be anxious about life's necessities is one of the hardest spiritual lessons. In Matthew 5:24-34 (WEB), Jesus provides clear direction to lay our anxious ways aside and focus on our spiritual lives. This sounds fine on paper. Yet living this out when credit card bills are piling up, rent is increasing, and you can no longer afford groceries is a tough sale. When we can't function in the practical, how can Jesus tell us to focus on spiritual matters?
Title: Slow Water, Author: flowcomm, Source: Flickr is licensed by CC BY 2.0
First, you must acutely know Jesus cared for the poor. The poor, disadvantaged, and sick were plentiful during Jesus's day. In the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25, WEB) serving the poor was equated to serving God. Matthew 11:4-6 notes that Jesus came to proclaim the good news to the poor. In Luke 8:47, Jesus heals a woman whose illness ruined her livelihood; showing Christ’s concern for the poor included physical wellness. The stories of Jesus' interaction, healing, and restoration of the poor pervade the entire gospels.
Yet, when cautioning about your anxious thoughts; Jesus did not use his ministry to the poor as his example. Instead, he wants you to change your thinking about abundance! Jesus asks you to turn away from focusing on your own needs and the needs that surround you. Instead, you are guided to look to nature in all of its abundance. Rather than focusing on what you will eat, drink, and wear; Christ turns your attention to the birds in the sky. Unlike you, they don’t sow, reap, and gather crops into barns, yet God ensures there is a steady supply of food, water, and nesting materials (Matthew 5:26).
Jesus furthers his focus on abundance and nature by centering your attention on the lilies of the field. He compares and contrasts your worries for simple clothing to the splendor that God adorns the lilies. Lilies come in an array of abundance and colors; there are over 100 species and more the 2000 varieties (Noyes, 2022). The beauty, types, and adornment of the flower are plentiful. The lilies don’t toil or spin with anxiety; yet they dress in greater splendor than kings (Matthew 5:29, WEB).
Meditating on God’s Abundance in Nature Limits Scarcity Thinking:
Scarcity is entirely a human based concept. It is for this reason that Jesus directs you to nature to understand the absolute abundance that surrounds you. The deer in the field do not become anxious about their next meal. The fish in the sea don't question their future. They simply exist in harmony with their surroundings, receiving the good that God intends for them.
It is only in our human systems that scarcity, poverty, and lack exist. As Charles Fillmore (2018) notes in the book Prosperity, “It is perfectly logical to assume that a wise and competent Creator would provide for the needs of His creatures in their various stages of growth.”
In order to live in abundance, you must stop looking at the problems, poverty, and lack that surround you. You must turn your attention to the ever-present abundance of God as evidenced in nature. This does not mean you don't plan for your needs. Instead of worrying, as you turn your mind to the abundance of God in nature, you become confident of receiving many divine ideas, thoughts, and actions that can not only meet your needs, but exceed your needs so you can share and give to others.
In order to live in abundance, you must stop looking at the problems, poverty, and lack that surround you.
When your meditation is in the abundance of nature, you become awed in the process of a seed becoming a tree. When you plant a seed, you don’t question if that seed will produce. You trust in nature and for that seed to produce fruit. In the tiniest of seed, is the genetic potential for a tree that produces fruit in abundant supply. There is faith in nature’s unfolding of the genetic potential of the seed to manifest a fully, mature tree.
It is important to be clear. Your focus on God’s abundance in nature doesn’t remove the obstacles, problems, and challenges in your everyday life. Even in nature, there are challenges to the growth and maturation process. There are seasons of drought, forest fires, harsh winters, and even disease. Despite these obstacles, the abundance of nature continues to abound and reincarnate. Where there is drought; it once again rains. Where there is destruction by fire; there is new growth. When devastating cold kills off branches, the hearty root system sends new life to break through the soil.
Whatever has been pruned by your life circumstances, devastating events, and scarcity will be reborn. You must grieve your loss and then turn your attention to God’s abundant supply to experience your new birth. Yes, grief and loss are a natural part of the healing process for a season, but as you heal and turn your attention to God’s abundance and provision, a new start, a new beginning, becomes clear.
Meditating and turning your attention to God’s abundance is the first step in returning your life to growth and renewal. It will tempt you to look at the systems of the world: money, power, wealth, and popularity as evidence of your abundance, but these are simply false apparitions. When we look at the apparitions versus the supplier of abundance, we worship prosperity and wealth as a false god. You become too focused on the outcomes of abundance instead of the supplier.
In order to live and be anxious for nothing, you must stop looking for the outcomes of abundance. While it is okay to enjoy prosperity; when you look to a bank balance, stock portfolio, or a high-end home as your security; you are no longer living in true abundance. Like the lilies of the field, these can be present one day and burned up the next.
Whatever has been pruned by your life circumstances, devastating events, and scarcity will be reborn.
It is not your circumstances, good or bad, that determine if you live in abundance. Instead, it is your attenuation to God as Source that determines the level of abundance in which you live. As noted in Matthew 6:32 (WEB), “… for your heavenly father knows you need all these things.” God, as Source, desires to be your abundant supply, but first, you must look beyond the gift to the giver. You must seek and trust God as Source. It is only then you become spiritually ready to receive the gifts of God and share those gifts with others.
In Christ’s lessons on prosperity, he didn’t tell you to depend on bank accounts, supply chains, high-end automobiles, and gated communities. Instead, he directed you to learn from the rhythms and seasons of nature. In nature, you see God’s abundant supply and care for creation despite the obstacles, challenges, and circumstances. Nature provides a glimpse of how, when centered on Source, you no longer need to ask, “what you shall eat, wear, or drink?” When you view God as Source, you clearly see that God provides for the entirety of creation. If God will provide for the birds and lilies of the field; God will also provide for you.
Abundance Meditation Practice:
When you become anxious and worried about your health, well-being, and finances; look at a tree outside your window. Imagine that tree starting from a small seed and the various stages of growth and development that it proceeded through. Imagine the substance of the Universe, God, caring for and nurturing the tree at each stage of growth. Reflect on the tree rings inside the trunk; the rings in a tree show seasons of abundance and scarcity. Note how the strong tree prevailed and grew in God’s abundance despite obstacles. In your thoughts, explore how the tree depended on the universal supply during challenging times.
After your meditation, journal regarding your own growth as a person from infancy to your current age. Note the times of plenty where God nurtured you as you grew and developed, but also the times where you struggled. Reflect on how God supplied you with nurturance even though you may have been unaware of it.
Finally, take a stroll in nature or a park. Nature supplies every need, so there is no worry or anxiety. Internalize your experience of this quiet, patience and use it to remind and ground yourself in God’s provision.
By: Heath B. Walters, Ph.D.
Copyright© March 3rd, 2023, Heath B. Walters DBA Spiritual Life Resources, All Rights Reserved
Reference
Fillmore, Charles, (2018). Prosperity-Talks on Truth. In Charles Fillmore Complete Collection of Twelve Books. (Kindle Edition). Alpha Centauri Publishers.
Noyes, A. (2022). Thirty Different Types of Lilies & How to Care for Them. Retrieved 2/20/2023 from: https://www.gardeningchores.com/types-of-lilies/.
World Health Organization (March 2022), News Release: Covid-19 Pandemic Triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. Retrieved 2/20/23 from: https://www.who.int/news/item/02-03-2022-covid-19-pandemic-triggers-25-increase-in-prevalence-of-anxiety-and-depression-worldwide.
World English Bible (2022). WEB Online. https://ebible.org/study/.