Have you ever made a list of what you "need"?
"Need".
Not "want".
Yesterday, Curt and I went grocery shopping, with a list corresponding with my menu of two weeks. It also contained items we had run out of that needed replenished. I just wrote, "needed". Yes, some items were "needed".
We did a pretty good job sticking to the list, although my shopping partner did add to our cart chips, cookies, which I know aren't "needed", even though his opinion differs with mine.
After writing a check and realizing one bag of "stuff" used to average $10 now averages $20, we carted our "needed" items home and put them in their places. It was hard for me to add this "stuff" to the cupboards I have just cleaned and organized. I really enjoy the empty spaces in drawers and shelves.
It got me to thinking, how much of this "stuff" is actually not needed. The bags of chips and cookies aren't "needed" and aren't healthy choices.
And then ABBA asked me, "How are you doing in your spiritual life?
How often do I go through my "self", following His lead, purging and organizing. Leaving clean spaces that He desires I fill up with Him, and find myself putting "self" back in those spaces instead. How often do I fill up with "chips and cookies", instead of the "meat" He gives me? How often have I picked up "doubt" and thought His giving wasn't filling a "need" and took matters into my own hands? How often have I lied and said my "want" was a "need"?
And how many times have I felt there must be "more"? When I don't see the "needs" He has given me as "more than enough"? How often am I realizing He fills "needs" to others through me and follow through in His prompting? How often have I selfishly gathered all I have around me, like a small child not wanting to share toys? How often do I see my "more than enough" and offer it to someone who "needs" it? And when I do, is it with a Christlike heart? Is it about His glory or mine?
As I grow "in" ABBA, His Word, He is continually transforming my whole being. Titus 2:11-12 says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age…”
More than enough.............
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