The Bare Necessities?

“And it is he who will supply all your needs from his riches in glory because of what Christ Jesus has done for us.”
Philippians 4:19 TLB

Our trust isn’t in the economy but in God. He provides for us “according to his riches in glory,” not according to the world’s economic system. Man’s resources are always limited but God’s supply is limitless; God’s supply far outweighs the lack we see. We shouldn’t have a shortage-mentality but a hopeful, faith-filled mentality.

The problem for most believers is that we limit God by believing for (expecting) very little. We aren’t really trusting God to supply like He wants to because we believe that He only wants to provide us with the bare necessities. We tend to focus on the word “need” (in Philippians 4:19) which leads us to believe that only the bare necessities are covered in this promise. We seem to think that wanting more than we need is greed but the opposite is true. Many Christians see God as El-Cheapo 

not El Shaddai (our all-sufficient, all-bountiful God who satisfies and supplies). The word “supply” in this verse should be our focal point; it basically means to cram full or to satisfy. God doesn’t just want to provide you with enough to get by on; He wants to cram you so full of blessing that you’ll be a blessing to others. The truth is that every believer has already been crammed full of God’s blessing, power and everything they could ever need (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Peter 1:3). We don’t need more from God; we simply need to access through faith what God has placed in us by grace. We need to get the blessing flowing in our lives so that it’s not only a spiritual reality but a tangible one too.

I’ve heard nice Christian people say things like, “Oh, I just pray that God would supply enough for me to look after myself and my family…” and they think that they’re being humble. It’s greedy to only want enough to look after yourself. The purpose of abundance isn’t so that you can be excessive in your lifestyle, it’s so that you can be a blessing to other people. You should want to have more than enough so that you can be more of a blessing – this is God’s will for you!

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work”
2 Corinthians 9:8 (KJV)

God is able to make “all” (not some) “grace abound” (that’s talking about abundance) “towards you”. God wants you to abound in blessing but the abundance is not for abundance sake – it has a significant purpose! The purpose of abundance is so that you “having all sufficiency” (not just enough but more than enough) “in all things” (not just 

spiritualblessing but “things”) “may abound” (again, it’s talking about abundance) “to every good work”. God wants you to be blessed so that you can be a blessing to “every good work.” I believe that the “good work” is talking about ministries which are helping people by actively fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus to go into all the world, disciple nations and help people turn from darkness to light (Matthew 28:18; Mark 16:15; Acts 26:18). There isn’t a better work than a work which is helping to change people’s eternal destinies. 

You need to learn to be content with little or much (Philippians 4:12). Learning this will help you to be happy in life despite the circumstances, but don’t forget that God wants you to have an abundance so that you can experience the joy of being a blessing!