Monday, December 29, 2003
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking
at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it."
(Genesis 4.7
NRSV)
In his best-selling books, Stephen Covey talks about people with an abundance mentality and
people with a scarcity mentality. This is an important concept and I hope you will bear with me
for a moment. People with a scarcity mentality, says Covey, see life as a finite pie: if someone
gets a big piece of the pie, it means less for them. People with a scarcity mentality have a hard
time sharing recognition, credit, power, or profit, says Covey. They also have a tough time
being genuinely happy for the success of other people--even, and sometimes especially,
members of their own family or close friends and associates. It's almost as if something were
being taken from them when someone else receives special recognition or success. Have you
ever seen that happen? You can tell someone with a scarcity mentality by the disparaging
remarks they make following someone else's success. It's a sad situation when other people's
happiness somehow diminishes your own--but that's the scarcity mentality!
The abundance mentality, on the other hand, says that there is enough glory, enough credit,
enough honor in this world for everybody--that our God is a God of abundance not of scarcity.
Go with me to the first book in our Bible to that haunting story of Cain and Abel. God had
regard for Abel's offering but not for Cain's. Cain was furious. Do you remember God's words
to Cain? God asked Cain why he was so angry and then God asked, "If you do well, will you
not be accepted?"
That's God's word to us: If you do well, will you not be accepted? You and I are not in
competition with anyone else.
Dear Jesus, help me to do well in honoring you. Amen.
Ron
Newhouse
Help Promote
Devotions.Net |
Past Devotions
| Home
| Bible
| Devotions
| Humor
| Visitors
| Links
|