God's Gives Grace Exceedingly and Abundantly

These words fill me with the wonder of God’s gracious abundance. The quote from Nancy Spiegelberg is my favorite quote, because I, like most of you, have been in the barren, arid, desert; my soul thick and dry with a thirst for God. Psalm 42 begins this way, “As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for You O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” When we get that thirsty for God, we, like Nancy Spiegelberg, usually expect and would be content with just a drop of refreshment. But God, in His gracious mercy, gives us a bucket, and.much much, more full of His life giving water. The psalmist David said, “My cup runs over" (Psalm 23:5).

There are times when God gives us only what we need. We may not get the most expensive, high running, automobile, but He will provide us with a good running, practical, car that is economical and at an affordable cost. But when it comes to giving us the water of life, there is no limit to how much He will give us. In the gospel of John, John often uses the words abundant, abundantly, or abundance when talking about our Lord. “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

In Exodus 17, the children of Israel had a short time ago been delivered out of four hundred years of slavery in Egypt. God used Moses to be the instrument to accomplish it. As they fled they came to a dead end at the Red Sea. God miraculously parted the entire sea so they could cross safely to the other side. When the Egyptians arrived and tried to walk through the sea, God caused the waters to flow back anddrowned every Egyptian that pursued them.

As the the children of Israel wandered forty years in the desert, God graciously provided food for them daily in the form of Manna, and water through miraculous means, despite the fact that they did not ask Him in humble faith, but rather bitterly demanded it and accused Moses of deliberately bringing them there to die. Moses proved to be a faithful intercessor and God showed abundant grace and mercy.

I once had the wonderful occasion to visit Niagara Falls in Canada. The power, majesty, and overflowing abundance of those waters were, in the true sense of the word, awesome. It took my breath away, and I heard, “I never run dry, all is yours.” The Ephesians verse above uses the words filled and fullness. He will fill us with the fullness of Him. But it usually takes a desert, barren, experience for us to seek it that desperately. In our world today, we are filled with self-sufficiency, self-this, and self-that. I have, during some seasons of my life, waited to hit desperation mode when all I could do is crawl to God, all wobbly and weak. But nonetheless, He has always been there, ready with His Niagara Falls, to fill me to overflowing.

There is nothing greater, more refreshing and life giving, than guzzling down fresh, cold, water after a time of total, utter, dryness. If your soul is parched and weak, and you are wandering in the barren desert, crawl, walk, hop, hobble, pogo stick, or run to God and drink your fill of the sweet, life giving, abundant waters God is generously offering you. Then remember what David said in Psalm 23: “He restoreth my soul.”