Little vs. Abundance [Meditations on Psalm 37]

"Better is the little that the righteous has,

than the abundance of many wicked" Psalm 37:16

These verses are amazingly true, and have been comforting in my life.

I would say that we are in a season of having a little right now.  And its because of the choices that we have made to follow Jesus.  

Living in expensive Southern California, and choosing to live off of one salary so that I can invest full time into discipling our children and choosing to live in a house (rather than a smaller apartment) so that we have enough room to be foster parents, and choosing to care for widows and orphans and choosing to support many missionaries and choosing to open our home for our missional community and other church activities and choosing to serve faithfully at church and choosing to have children rather than the ease of the "child-free" life... all of these decisions are because we follow Jesus.  But these decisions also mean that we have very little time, energy and money to spend on ourselves.  Much of it is being poured out to others.  

And sometimes I get jealous.  Sometimes I want to grab it all back, and stop giving away the best of my time and energy and possessions to other people.  But in those moments of selfishness, God is gracious to patiently remind me that it is better that I serve him faithfully and have only a little left for myself (and get all of Him), than to not know Him and get to keep it all to myself (and have none of Him).  After all, Jesus himself said "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

However, it is important to remember that the believer does in fact have abundance, even if it is not always in material goods.

"But the meek shall inherit the land, 

and delight themselves in abundant peace." v. 11

"[the righteous] are not put to shame in evil times,

in the days of famine they have abundance"

Believers are offered abundant peace from God and are protected from his judgement (thus His provision for them in the midst of famine that is a result of evil).  This reminds me of the widow who offered to give Elijah the last her her flour and oil to make bread, and God blessed her step of faith by renewing her oil and flour day by day until the famine ceased.

The point is, God is not stingy with his children.  We need not think that his hand is too small or that his arm is too short to give his children what we need.  He provides exactly what we need when we need it, and the fact that he does not always give us our desires is his mercy.