But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.
Deuteronomy 8:11
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season! As we look forward to and prepare our hearts for the new year, I am reminded of the beginning of 2021 and how I choose the word enough as my focus for this past year. I was specifically reminded of this because, while my focus might have been on having enough, it was not the focus of everyone in my household—namely our boy kitty, Jester.
I hate to air this publicly but our girl kitty, Trixie, has, well, a bit of a weight problem. The doctor said she’s fat. Now getting one cat to lose weight while maintaining the weight of the other is no easy feat. We have been trying to exercise Trixie more, but we have had to cut back on how much food we are feeding them. Let me be clear—they are still getting the recommended serving size of food for cats their size each day, it is just on the smaller side of the scale.
This cut back in food has made Jester panic. (His weight has stayed steady; he has neither lost nor gained weight.) Jester wants us to be sure we know that he needs a steady supply of food, so he has a routine that he goes through. He will meow loudly to get our attention. Then he starts wrapping himself around our legs. When we acknowledge him, he runs a few steps ahead, stops, looks back at us, meows, and waits for us to follow him. When we walk towards him he repeats this routine, a few steps at a time until we arrive at the food dish. Thankfully our house isn’t that large otherwise this would be a very time consuming process!
When Jester has successfully led us to his food, he jumps up onto the space where we keep his food and looks at us expectantly. And guess what—there is almost always still food in the dish! They usually finish their food within an hour before their meal time but still—Jester wants more knowing that while there will be more to meet his needs, there may not be extra food put out day and night like there was in the good ole days of his youth. Therefore, he feels he must always be asking for more, ahead of his actual need. Jester doesn’t want enough—he wants plenty!
Have you ever done this with God?
How many times has God proved Himself in providing for our needs? He tells us in His word that He will provide for our needs. Maybe not all our wants, but all of our needs; and furthermore, He will provide for the desires of our hearts when we have hearts that are focused on Him! But, like Jester, we want to see that all of our future needs will be met ahead of time. We want to take trust out of the picture, so we ask for things way ahead of the need. We worry about things over which we have no control. It is wise to do our due diligence, to save, and to plan for the future, but how often do we do all these things and still worry? How often do we still not trust?
It is easy to say that we trust and lean on Him when we are in the years of plenty. It is in the years of plenty and the easy times that we are most likely to forget our need for Him, and to rely on ourselves.
As we start this new year, my hope and prayer is that we will fully trust in Him no matter the situation in which we find ourselves. May we remember that our God is a God of plenty, not just enough. He is even more so a God of wisdom and will provide as much of what we need, when we need it and not one moment sooner, according to what He knows will be best for us.
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