Four years ago, our family found a higher use for the first day of April. We have celebrated “Abundance Day” on April 1st, every year since then.
Abundance Day came about as the celebration at the end of one of the most unusual years we have ever lived through as a family. I am tempted to go into great detail on that, but it’s not really what I am writing about today. Today, I want to talk about the abundant provision of God for those who love Him.
As a side note, He also provides for those who don’t even know that He exists, too. In fact, He even provides for those who actively oppose Him, as well.
Why? Because God loves us all. He doesn’t limit Himself to only returning the love of those who already love Him, the way we humans tend to do. He loves and provides for all of us even when we are still resisting Him.
What proof do I have for this statement? Well, start with logic. If God made the entire world and everything in it, and that world, with the exception of man, is still directly obeying God’s commands, then every wonderful thing you get from this world is given to you by God. He made it; He holds it into being; He made you; He holds you into being; He allows you to benefit from the world that He has made; He is providing for you.
Jesus, speaking of God the Father, said,
“. . .He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45b)
In other words, the systematic, routine good that God has planned to give to all men, goes to all men. For example, you don’t have to earn the right to have rain fall on your garden, or be allowed by God to sit in the sun. He gives these life-preserving good things to all men and women.
But He wants much more for you than just to preserve your life! God has a beautiful plan for your life, one that He has had from before the foundation of the world. He created you with the plan in mind, and He made you to be perfectly fit to do the things He has planned.
We are all satisfied with so little! Survival isn’t enough. God wants you to thrive, to live abundantly in connection with others so that you belong. He wants to inspire you! He has implanted abilities in you that you may not have yet discovered, to do things that seem too wonderful for you to ever aspire to do!
The problem is that most of us have been lulled into a kind of dream-state, where nothing really seems to matter. We are carried along by our distractions, our entertainment and our routine, and it is only when something is disrupted that we look up and say, “Hey! What do I do now?”
The Miracle that Changed our Lives
Well, that was pretty much where we were many years ago. Everything we thought was stable was upended when Jim lost his job just a little before Thanksgiving. That experience plunged us into our first thrilling leap into complete dependence upon God.
“A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24)
“The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.” (Psalms 37:23-24 NLT)
It was throughout that whole experience, that we first learned to let go of our own plans and trust God. Along the way, we began to learn about the specific ways God leads us. And one thing we learned is that God provides through his children; that is, through other believers who are surrendered to Him.
“You go on and enjoy it, dear. I have more than enough.”
At one point, we had used up every bit of food in the house and we were not sure what to do next. I was watching my kids get thinner, but I wasn’t about to go on welfare. We were too proud, too sure of ourselves–and too afraid of what would happen if we did ask for help. Our extended family didn’t know the extent of our deprivation, nor did our neighbors. We kept pretty much to ourselves, and despaired in private.
But we did call out to God. And one day, while we were dropping off some things at the local recycling place, Tony found a Bible in the book bin. He asked the man there if he could have it, and then came to show me what he had found.
In the Bible was a bookmark that said “A promise is a promise,” And when we opened the page, a verse was underlined: “I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” (Psalms 81:10)
We looked at each other in wonder. Could that message really be meant to for us? I remember that day so well. We were standing next to a huge cardboard box, filled with paperback novels with the covers torn off, staring at each other as if time had stopped. We kept looking back at the Bible, with the pink bookmark and its childish writing.
We took the Bible home, and things started happening almost immediately. Our neighbor texted me that his mother had brought him a trunk full of canned goods and they had no room. He was stacking boxes of them on the basement steps and it was getting dangerous. Could we take some?
Boom: Our dining room table was filled with cans of food!
The next morning, Jim got a text from a buddy at work. He had just been gifted a butchered hog but didn’t have room for all of the meat in his freezer. Would we take some off his hands so he didn’t have to throw it away? And by the way, did we want a gallon of maple syrup? He didn’t like the taste.
Voila: A freezer half full of meat!
My mom and dad called to say the calves had been processed and our Christmas present was ready to be picked up.
And now: A whole freezer full of meat!
My sister cleaned out her fridge: Did we like Gouda cheese?
By the end of the week, we had enough provisions to last for many months, and it was food that was much better than we would have ever bought for ourselves.
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” “A promise is a promise.”
Dear friends, all of this happened in early 2013! We didn’t know it then, but God was preparing us to get used to relying on him to provide for all of our needs, including the very food we ate. Our income was restored for a few years, and then Jim lost his job again when the factory he was working for closed just three weeks before Christmas.
Here we go again!
It was still a hard jolt, but this time we had a history with God. When he told me, I got a little thrill up my spine and said, “Looks like God has another roller coaster ride planned.” And indeed, He did.
The new situation God provided stretched Jim all over the place. He had to do things he had never done before, working in a non-structured environment that seemed like pure chaos when he entered it. But interestingly enough, all the new things he had learned in his last job fit the new job perfectly. (The Lord orders our steps, remember?)
But then Jim was asked to work for free. Temporarily. We went to the Lord, and it was plain to all of us that this was what he had been sent there for, to do this job and to trust the Lord for the details.
What details? Our bills. Our food. Our gas money. “Temporary” stretched into “permanent,” and from that point on, we didn’t step foot into a store for years.
How did that work? God just provided. That is the simplest way to put it.
People would stop Jim and hand him things: “God told me to give this to you”: A gift card, a bag of groceries, a box of pens. Many of these people were complete strangers, and what they brought met the exact need we had at the time.
Jim felt like God didn’t want us to talk about it, so we didn’t talk about what was happening to our families and friends until years later. And still, the help kept coming from totally unexpected places.
Abundance Day, to Honor God
At the end of the first complete year of totally trusting God, we dedicated this day, April 1st, to be a celebration of the kind of abundance God gives us! For God had not only helped us to survive, but He also gave us so much more than what we needed. We were actually able to share with others who were in need!
God sent me Danish butter cookies and eggnog at Christmas (a particular favorite of mine!) He sent Beau his favorite brand of pens! He sent tools so we could continue our creative work, paints, brushes, paper, blank CDs, and even a Dremel tool (for engraving the wine bottles I had fashioned into drinking glasses)!
After a while, God inspired some dear people to bring us groceries every week (!), but they would never ask us what we needed, they just prayed and bought as the Lord directed. One friend bought us a whole box of replacement fuses for our aging fuse box. All this is without us asking, and without strings. God directed them and they obeyed.
There are some people who helped us that have now vanished from our lives (but will never disappear from our hearts!) We pray for God to bless them every day, every time they come to mind.
Abundance. God provided for us over and over, and it has never stopped. Jim is getting a living wage now, so the financials are different. We actually go to the store and buy our own groceries.
But we will never forget what God did for us when we had nothing. And we continue to remember that when we come across those who have nothing now. For now, the shoe is on the other foot.
The important thing to remember is that we (our family) are not special. Rather, we are surrendered to God, and He is using us to do His work. He desires to do this with every believer who surrenders to Him. Granted, our situation is a little bit unusual, and I know that God doesn’t want everyone to go without income. But He does want you to know that He will take care of you.
“Don’t worry,” God says, and “Don’t be afraid! I have a better plan than you understand.”
When things get out of the routine, that just means that God is getting ready to use you. Surrender just means that we must stop trying to take the wheel out of God’s hands and and drive in a different direction. God sees the future; He sees the end from the beginning. Who better to be in control?
“A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24)
That is what Abundance Day is all about. God takes care of us better than we can take care of ourselves. And because that is true, then why would we worry about any of it? For what does any of us have that is really our own?
As Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)
Everything comes from God. Every opportunity, our good health, our inspiration, our energy, our desire, our resources, and our life. I am convinced by my own experience that God never takes anything away from us unless He has something much better in store.
May God bless you and keep you, dear friends! Look for ways to bless others this Holy Week. Watch, also, for the blessing God is sending your way. For He loves you so very much, and He delights to show you!
The Fullers Four 