How Our Ideas About God Limit His Abundance In Our Lives
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Sep 12, 2016 2440
by Eliezer Gonzalez
Our expectations of God are too low. Because God hasn’t done what we want, the way we want it, and when we want it, we think that God falls short of his promises in the same way that people too often seem to disappoint us.
Some Christians are just happy enough to go to church and have a good time worshipping and in community; if there is anything else to Christianity it’s just a nebulous, and maybe even dubious, bonus. Other Christians are sad and gloomy all the time, because for them, their lives on earth are sheer misery, and they are just waiting to die or for Jesus to come again so that things will improve. In these ways, we lower our expectations of God.
What are your ideas about God? Jesus says that, “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38). The principle here is that how we view God limits the extent to which he is able to bless us. Here is an important truth:
My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19).
What this tells us is that God meets our needs, not according to our needs, but “according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” We tend to pray according to our needs: “God, I need this, I need that. Please let me have it.”
We often pray to God as if he were the ultimate miser – some kind of heavenly Scrooge; we pray in the hope that he might give us just enough. When we stop asking for the big things, and because of our limited view of God’s goodness, the words of the apostle James apply to us: “You do not receive because you do not ask” (James 4:3).
And when we do receive, we often don’t even recognize it! That’s one of the greatest ways in which we limit God’s abundance toward us.
But what the Bible is telling us in Phil 4:19 is that instead of taking hold of our needs, we need to take hold of Christ’s riches in glory! When we take hold of Christ’s riches in glory, the tiniest grain of those riches will overflow in an abundance of blessing that overwhelms our need!
God is the provider of magnificent abundance, and he is longing to let it overflow in our lives. God may not give in the way that we expect him to give, because after all, he is a loving Father who knows what we need best. But the person who trusts in him will always receive much more than they ever dared to ask for or even could imagine.
We must allow the true character of God to transform us. When we learn how much God loves us, and that he loved us enough to die for us in Christ Jesus, we will learn to trust in him like little children, and we will learn to delight in the vastness of his blessings.
– Eliezer Gonzalez
Steven Amanda
May 26, 2020
I agree with most of that. Please allow me to explain....... I DO notice EVERY time God blesses me, I Do Indeed. And I have no complaints on my blessings..... because I Do Indeed Know That I Am ABUNDANTLY Blessed. Even though I will be homeless and living on the sidewalk come June 1st. I STILL know that even then, I will be blessed. Because I know that it could always be ALOT worse. What I can't seem to understand about recent events in my life is.... God blessed me for the first time in my life with the one main thing that I have been asking for more than anything else in my entire 43 years of life. He blessed me with the most beautiful, godly, spiritual, extremely intelligent and amazing in EVERY WAY both inside and out....woman whom I love the same amount that I love Him and I know that she feels the same way about me as well. No (in case you are curious) she and I have not yet had sexual relations. Been together approximately 5 or 6 months. When we first started talking she told me some far fetched things and so I consulted with God concerning these things and He told me not to have any doubt.... that she was indeed being 100% honest with me and since then I have seen that what God and Amanda has told me is very true. Not far fetched in the least bit. Something else God told me and I will never forget His EXACT words to me, "She (His gift to me) is and will continue to be mine AS LONG AS I DO ALL THAT IS REQUIRED TO KEEP HER." With that said, please let me explain recent events in our life.......... She went to jail for something that I don't believe she is guilty of AND still to this day has not been found guilty of. Her case has been suspended per completion of mental health evaluation order. I used my stimulus payment to bond her out of jail with a local bondsman. Then 4 days after she was out on bond, she was taken back into custody for her mental health evaluation to take place (only supposed to last for 96 hours). Well, during her mental health evaluation, the bondsman felt the need to surrender her bond (even though she nor I have done anything to violate the bond conditions) and none of my money that I had given to the bondsman to bond her out, has been returned to me. So $1,000+ stolen from me AND APPARENTLY LEGALLY as well. This bailbond company of 100+ years (I have found out through the grapevine) has tendencies of doing this type of scheme very frequently, usually to poor people just like me, so not to be able to have the funds to be able to obtain a lawyer and sue their bailbond company, etc. Furthermore, main reason she needs to be out of jail is NOT JUST TO BE WITH ME...... but so that she is able to file for her stimulus payment which would be our ticket to not be forced homeless on the sidewalk. Now, this all said...... I know without a shadow of a doubt, that God's hand is FOR SURE in my life AND AMANDA'S as well. And I know for 110% FACT (And Yes I Do Know That I Said 110% Not Just 100%.... that is intentional)...... I Know That For 110% Fact That Amanda and I Are Abundantly Blessed AND VERY THANKFUL AND EXTREMELY GRATEFUL and God knows that her and I show Him our gratitude DAILY for such. Now......My Question In All Of This Is..... WHY? WHY?? WHY??? Can Anyone Explain???
Tony Weathers
Aug 31, 2017
Thank you brother,
Eliezer Gonzalez
Jul 7, 2020
No, Steven, I don't know anyone can explain these things, because we are the creature and God is the Creator. And this is the very reason why we need to be saved. Because there will come a time when we will understand. And we will know that Jesus was always beside us, no matter the darkness, no matter the severity of the storm. He never leaves us. He never promised an easy life. That's not really the nature of his blessings. Instead he actually warned us that we would experience trouble in this world. ("In this world you will have trouble.") Trusting him through all of this is a mark of a Christian. So, hold on Steven, hold on!