13. Abundance
Father is all abundance, that is, too much in everything and always overflowing. Father is not "just what we need"; He is always MORE THAN ENOUGH.Paul used the Greek word, perisseuó, meaning “to be over and above, to abound,” or, better yet, “more than is needed,” over and over to describe this God who fills us full with all that He is.
But we cannot fully grasp the extent and meaning of God's abundance towards us and through us without also considering the terrible scarcity in which all humans and most Christians live, a scarcity borne out of constant accusation against God.
Although God must bring us to the abandonment of ourselves and must enable us to rejoice in the loss of all things, yet that is only so that we will enter into the symmorphic relationship with God for which we were created. Inside and out from that symmorphic Bond which is Christ, however, Father is a God of abundance; scarcity and lack have nothing to do with God.
Lesson 13.1 An Overflowing Father positions the reality of an exuberant Father who is always more than enough. The lesson uses the feeding of the five thousand as well as the memory of childhood potluck dinners to define for us what "more than enough" feels like to us. Filled with all the fullness of God can mean nothing short of a God who is abundant beyond all measure.
Lesson 13.2 The Dilemma of Scarcity uses the musings of Agur the son of Jakeh to position that awfulness of the accusation of scarcity against the present reality of a God of abundance.
Lesson 13.2 Living in Abundance then explores the practical meaning for us of living our lives in the expectation and experience of a God who is always more than we could ever need or imagine. This abundance fills our own needs to the top first, and flows out from us as more than we need to fulfill any and all service God has created us to be.