Have you ever felt at times that your resources seemed inadequate to meet the challenge? Maybe you’ve felt like one of the disciples trying to feed over 5,000 people with only a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Perhaps you’re a young mom trying to keep up with a baby and a toddler and you’re feeling stretched to the limit.

It’s important to know the resources that are available to you – are you considering only your human resources or are you including God’s resources? When you depend upon your resources you realize that they are finite. Considering only human reasons causes us to view life as having only so much, as though there were only a fixed amount. This may lead to a zero-sum paradigm of life. People with only a human resource mindset may believe that if someone else benefits then there isn’t enough to go around for me.

The apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians points out two ways of thinking,

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (2 Corinthians 9:6)

An alternative mindset is realizing God’s resources. We don’t live in a closed system but God is able to supply what you need. God is a very present help in time of trouble (Psalm 46:1). When you realize God’s resources you can live in freedom knowing that His resources are available to you,

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)

Think about this verse – God is able to make all grace abound to you! God may not give you what you want but He can give you what you need. God’s resources are available at all times with all sufficiency, in all situations. The word “abundance” (περισσεύω) means abounding (in quantity or quality), to be in excess, to have more than enough.

What is a situation you’re facing in which you feel overwhelmed? Just as the disciples brought the five loaves and two fish to Jesus there was more than enough food so that the disciples had to collect the leftovers,

So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. (John 6:13)

There was one basket of leftovers for each of the twelve disciples – a stark reminder that God is able to provide an abundance. Jesus taught that when people combine their inadequacy with God’s all sufficiency then God’s limitless resources make up for our finite resources. Remember this equation the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed,

My inadequacy + God’s all sufficiency = An abundance

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Chu,rch at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

Follow me on twitter:  rickhiggins5