Have you ever had a skilled server in a restaurant who was always making sure to keep the coffee warm in your cup, or one who was good at keeping your beverage glass full to the brim? I’ve had plenty of excellent servers, myself. Let me ask you this, though: Have you ever received a beverage refill near the end of your meal, and felt guilty for not drinking at least some of it, because the server made a special point of getting it for you? In fact, if you have an attentive server, you will often have more than you can drink by the end of the meal.
In the same way, not only does God care for us (and provide comfort in darkest times, as discussed in the previous article), but He also blesses us abundantly. David confirmed this to be true in his life, and wrote about it in Psalm 23:
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Psalms 23:5-6 NIV
We find in these verses victory (over enemies), honor (through anointing), abundance (running over!), and God’s “goodness and love”. God is not some overworked server who can’t stop by your table very often, or someone who forgets part of your order. (By the way, I hope that you show compassion for servers in situations like that. These days, their jobs sometimes require more than a single person can do at once, despite their – and their employers’ – best efforts.)
In contrast to a server that lets our cup or glass run dry (as we watch the ice melt slowly, just enough to get a sip every few minutes), I think of our “cup running over” like the attentive restaurant server described at the start of this article. That’s the sort of blessings that God provides to us! God is always present, always listening to us, always knowing the best decision for us to make next, and never at the mercy of whatever is available in the kitchen.
We sometimes have what I’ve read about as a “scarcity mindset”, where we are concerned that we’ll run out of what we need. God has been taking care of humankind from the day He first created us, and there’s no reason to believe that He’s ever going to run out of blessings and providence. The God who can speak things into existence does not need to worry about supply chain issues! Even if we gave away everything that we own (whether we run out of material goods and finances just as we expire, or leave our estate as an inheritance for others), I think that we can expect to leave our mortal bodies with plenty of God’s blessings still left “on the table”, so to speak.
(Of course, this is not a license for excess, since we should be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. Often, God blesses others through the actions of His followers – His family. However, when we somehow think that God isn’t going to be able to keep His promises just because we don’t see a human solution, we need to remember who God is. With Him, life is not a “zero-sum” arrangement.)
It’s gets even better, as we look ahead to God’s “goodness and love”. Apparently [per Tesh & Zorn, p.213], the word we have as “follow” here is more like “pursue” in the original language. These good things don’t just tag along with David; they chase after him, rather than his conquered enemies. This same commentary suggested Philippians 4:19 to describe this abundance. [Ibid.]
And, in the end, the final blessing listed here is the ability to live in God’s presence forever. We might think of this in light of the book of Revelation, spending eternity with God through the salvation that Jesus Christ provided for us. However, even David (living long before Jesus was born as a human being, even though Jesus was present at the creation of the world) knew what it looked like to spend time with God during a mortal lifetime, without needing to wait for a new Heaven and a new earth.
Let me be clear: if you are waiting for the next life to spend time with God, or to receive His blessings, or to experience being a new creation, you are totally missing out on what God has to offer in this life for those who love and follow Him (even when we have broken mortal bodies and live in a fallen world).
I hope that you can live in God’s abundant blessings today, not just to enjoy them or to merely spend time in leisure, but to appreciate who God is and to experience the good that is intrinsic to His nature. If you haven’t yet found that joy, please let me know (through the Contact form on this site or the comments below), or talk with a fellow Christian whose life illustrates the abundant life that Jesus offers.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for November 20, 2022
References:
- The Lookout, November 20, 2022, © 2022 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary, Psalms, Volume 1, S. Edward Tesh and Walter D. Zorn, © 1999, College Press Publishing Co., Joplin, MO.
Those Who Sin Differently 