The Abundance of God beats out the Abundance of Me

I recently read a book called “Abundance: The Future is Better than you Think” by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. They seek to make a case, in contrast to the “gloom and doom” crowd, that, largely due to technological advances, our best days are ahead of us, and we are up to meeting the challenges of poverty, climate, water, disease, etc. While many of the things that they describe are indeed exciting, their motto could be “In Technology We Trust.” 

I was drawn to their use of the word “abundance.” Some have said that you can quickly tell the difference between people who have an “abundance” mentality vs. those who have a “scarcity” mentality. The one is optimistic and opportunistic. The other is pessimistic and on guard against the worst. In that light, we should all have an “abundant” mindset. But not necessarily in the way they think.

From a Biblical point of view,  what is quite obvious to us is that sin abounds. There is corruption of all kinds all around us. It seems as though even the best things of our culture are now tainted with iniquity. And, if we are honest with ourselves, we find that same corruption in our own souls. Yet we read that great verse in Romans 5, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Even though, as Chesterton said, sin “is the only part of Christian theology that can really be proved,” it is the grace of God in Christ that pays the penalty of our sin and breaks the power of sin, so much so, that one day even the practice of sin will be removed from us and we will be removed from the very presence of sin, - it is this abundance which most amazes us.

Once we have discovered that the God of the Bible is a God of abundant grace, then we quickly also realize that His abundance is not limited to His grace. He is also abundant in power. He is also abundant in wisdom and knowledge. He is also abundant in right judgment, but also abundant in mercy. He is the super-abounding God, so much so that the authors mentioned above should be ashamed that they did not have a chapter on this God in a book entitled “Abundance.” They missed the best part.

But let’s address our own selves. We live in great prosperity; in an abundant society. It affords us great security, and we are persistently  and  persuasively tempted to trust in our own abundance rather than in God’s. And when we do that, we are not much different than the authors above, because the abundance of God beats out the abundance of me.