“Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let you requests be
known to God.” Philippians 4:6
Have you
ever paid attention to how much God likes to give when you read the different
passages in the bible? There are several
examples to choose from, here are a few:
In John
2:1-10 we find Jesus, some of His disciples, and Mary, His mother, are at a
wedding celebration in Cana. Wedding
celebrations in that time could last up to a week and at this particular
celebration they ran out of wine. At
this time, in this culture it would reflect badly on the groom for this to
happen.
In a
nutshell, Mary takes the time to point out the fact that the wine is now gone
to Jesus. His response is that His time
has not yet come. Undeterred, Mary tells
the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. Jesus has the servants fill six stone water
pots with water and take some to the master of the feast. After tasting the water turned into wine
(which he did not know was the case) the master of the feast then complements
the groom for bringing out the good stuff late in the celebration.
This is
normally credited as Jesus’ first miracle, turning the water into wine. But it is so much more than that. Above I pointed out that the wine was good
enough to elicit a compliment from the master of the feast. That in itself is a step above average, but
Jesus doesn’t stop there. There were 6
stone pots that were filled with water, in verse 6 we are told they are between
20 and 30 gallons each. That’s between
120 and 180 gallons of wine! Talk about
an extravagant wedding present!
How about
when Jesus fed the 5000 in John 6:1-14.
The 5000 just refers to the men present, scholars tell us that totals
including the women and children put the number of people there at closer to
20,000. Jesus starts with five barley
loaves and two fish. When all is said
and done Jesus has His disciples collect all the fragments, and they fill 12
baskets. This is the leftovers! How’s that for a little church picnic?
How about
one that makes feeding the 5000 look small in comparison? Exodus 16 tells us about how God provided for
the Israelites after they had left Egypt.
Every morning God provided manna for the nation of Israel. Scholars
estimate that at this time there were approximately 3,000,000 Israelites at the
time. In order to feed that many people
it has been calculated that there would need to be approximately 4,500 tons
daily. On the sixth day they were told
to collect a double portion since there would not be any manna on the Sabbath
(v 26) so that would be 9,000 tons on that day.
Over the
40 years they were in the desert over 67,000,000 tons of manna appeared
supernaturally! On top of that in verse 21 it tells us that when the sun became
hot it melted, implying that there was still some on the ground after they had
gathered manna, each to their need, each day.
Again we see God being extravagant, and this is when they were
complaining! (v2)
Manna is
not the only food God provided for them, in verse 13 we are told of quail
coming into camp in the evening. If they
averaged one quail per person that would total 3,000,000 quail each night. Try and wrap your head around that many quail
coming to the city where you live each evening.
And this in the wilderness, not necessarily where you might find quail,
especially in those numbers. Also, in
chapter 17, we see God providing water for them when He had Moses strike the
rock. The amount of water needed for
3,000,000 people, and their livestock, totals about 15,000,000 gallons. DAILY!
That is more than 22 Olympic sized swimming pools!
As I am
writing this I can’t help but be overcome with awe when I think about the shear
enormity of providing food daily for 3,000,000 people, and God did it,
extravagantly! And these are just a few
examples given to us in the bible.
After
reading about these times God was extravagant you may ask, “Why isn’t God being
extravagant in my life?” I think there
are a few reasons. First, and simply
put, we don’t ask. Or, we don’t ask God for all He can and wants to give to us. In other words we think too small. When Paul wrote to the Philippians about making
requests to God (Phil. 4:6), the words he used in Greek meant we are to
earnestly beseech or to be passionate in our requests. In other words Paul is telling us we can and
need to be bold when we take our requests to God.
As I look
at my prayers I can honestly say I don’t think big enough when I pray. Nor am I as bold as I should be. We all need to think bigger and be bolder
when we pray. Much bigger and much bolder. After all, we really are called to
win the world for Christ. Not a small
task.
Another
reason I believe we don’t see God working extravagantly in our life is that we
try to dictate to God what we think we need when we pray. Or we expect God to answer our prayers a
certain way. When God answers our
prayers in the way we need them answered verses how we want it done it can look
like He is not being extravagant, we may even feel like we have been slighted. It is important to remember God is much wiser
than we are and He know what we actually need and if you really look at how He
answers your prayers you will see what has truly happened in your life.
Finally,
Jesus told us not to store up treasure here on Earth but in Heaven (Mt 6:
19-21). I think we tend to forget about
this because we tend to be a little shortsighted. We want the immediate gratification. From an eternal perspective the treasures we
have stored in Heaven are much more important than anything we might get while
here on Earth, they will last for all eternity.
Without
any frame of reference it is hard to see what we have stored up in Heaven until
we get there and honestly when we get there I think it really is going to be
one of the last things we think about.
After all, we will be in the presence of our God, the Creator and
Sustainer of the universe.
There are
times when we do need to pray about specific things we need in our lives. By all means, do so. Just don’t get so focused on the details you
forget to look at the big picture. God
is extravagant and He wants to give us so much. Boldly ask God for all He has for you and
allow Him to work in your life.
