God of the Open Hand

You have been given everything you need to share the fullness of God and to enjoy His mercy and goodness today.  His hand is open to you.

Psalm 104 describes how God in wisdom and power provided everything man and beast needed to thrive on the earth.  Then, verses 27-28 summarizes this interaction: "They all wait for You to give them their food in due season.  You give to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good. "

God is faithful.  He has given us all that we need to meet every need and He calls on us "to gather it up."  Psalm 145 celebrates this theme also, declaring His greatness and heart toward us.  "You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.  The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.  The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.  He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them.  The Lord keeps all who love Him."  You can know that this is how good God is toward you. 

Natural, or soulish man, cannot know or appreciate the gifts of God.  Therefore, the world and those who live by their mind, will, and emotions are just spectators that do not see or know the God who has provided everything.  However, when we receive our born-again spirit, we now can taste and see the goodness of the One who created all things for our good.  Our spirit has three basic functions: worship, revelation, and fellowship, which enable us to live by His Word, to let the revelation of God's greatness and goodness direct our thoughts and feelings.  Our spirit is in charge of the reaction of the soul, as David states in the Psalms, "Bless the Lord, O my soul."  His spirit directed his soul (thoughts, will, and feelings) to worship and yield to God.  The Word is spirit and life, so it provides the revelation, or enabling truth, that produces worship with God.  This fellowship with God allows us to know and enjoy all He has given.      

Let this truth that God's hand is open toward you direct your thoughts and feelings. Receive and rejoice in God's fresh mercy and goodness, for He "satisfies the desire of every living thing."  God's hand is open to you, releasing whatever you need to satisfy your heart's desires.  Just as Jesus asked the blind man in Luke 18, He now asks you, "What do you want Me to do for you?"

 

How Much is Enough?

Walking through the stores very early on Black Friday morning and feeling the throngs of shoppers snatching up as many deals as possible is an experience to challenge the rational mind. How much stuff do we need? What makes us willing to pay such a high cost to amass more stuff? Why do we continually seek something new and more powerful to meet our wants? Do we really need more? What is the root cause of desire?
Christmas is the season of many things, but for children in most Western countires the first thought is the presents. Even though parents and Christian teachers have labored hard to bring the emphasis back to God and the coming of Jesus Christ, nothing replaces Santa Claus and their desire to get more stuff. We may have created a monster, but the roots were there long before we watered the plant.
Even Shakespeare, in Troilus and Cressida, points out that desire is never satisfied and infinite in what it seeks. Likewise Paul would contrast the desires of the flesh as diametrically opposite to the law of God in the spiritual man. Fallen human nature, according to Ephesians 2, follows the desires of body and mind. Even Solomon, who had the capabilities of letting himself satiate every human desire from wealth and fame to sex, concluded that all is vanity and that it did not satisfy.
The problem is simple. Our flesh wants everything it can desire, but it doesn’t have the ability to know what really satisfies those desires. Once man is born again with a new spirit, his mind and desires must be renewed or changed by God’s desires, revealed in His word. As the word becomes flesh in us, our thoughts and desires are transformed to be like His. Then promises like Psalm 42 which declare how we long for the living God as a deer pants for water become reality inside our hearts. God is even pleased when we honestly admit our lack of desire for Him, and then ask Him to give us a hunger and thirst for Him.
So how much stuff is enough? Stuff may be useful but not helpful if it deadens or is sought in replacement of the true fulfillment that only comes from knowing Jesus and enjoying the presence of God. Once we know Jesus, His Spirit can lead us to the right amount and use of stuff. Ask the Holy Spirit to sanctify your desires and give you that which matters.