The glass on the table is half full of water, and it is still half full no matter how you look at it. Looking at the glass half full or half empty is a state of mind. It can show our worldview. Do we see the world as Christ did, with "bread enough and to spare" (Luke 15:17 KJV) or do we see the world’s resources limited to only the few? Even more profoundly, do we see our lives with abundance or scarcity?
Stephen Covey, a prominent business consultant, explained that there are two types of mindsets or paradigms that influence people’s thinking: abundance mentality and scarcity mentality. The abundance mentality says there is enough to go around – we just need to be good stewards. The scarcity mentality says there will never be enough.
What are resources we have in abundance or scarcity? People complain most about not having enough time and not having enough money, yet most of us have the same 24 hours and the same amount of money each month. We hold up the glass and say it’s half empty. “If I save a little more here and don’t buy this, I will be able to pay off the balance of the card this month.” We have the same conversation month after month. “There is just so much and no more.” That is the scarcity mentality. When we say, “I can’t give money to charity this month,” that is saying there is a limit to what we can do. That is scarcity in full glory. Another sign that we have unwittingly adopted the scarcity mentality is our view of time. “I am too busy to visit a friend or make a phone call. I don’t have time to work out. I have too much to do. I can’t help you with that.” The truth is, we have the same amount of daylight as anyone else. We have the same seconds, minutes and hours as anyone else.
Is viewing our proverbial glass half empty getting in the way of our happiness? Does it come down to mindset? Is it that simple? The Lord told His disciples if they had faith, He would clothe them like the lilies of the field and would feed them like sparrows. I am convinced He didn’t mean quit your day job and go on the dole. One of the first commandments He gave to Adam was to get bread by the sweat of his brow. Work is a vital pillar of faith. We can’t just wish and pray to change situations. The Lord is more willing to help you get your car out of the mud if you pick up a shovel and start to work, but where does an abundant mindset play a part in our circumstances? Would we have more money if we believed and managed it, and would our time seem to increase if we used it more effectively?
Self-help author Napoleon Hill believed our minds dictate our success or failure. If he is correct, when we view our finances with an abundant mentality, we will find we have enough and to spare. But if we see our finances with a scarcity mentality, we will always lack money at the end of the month. The same goes for our time.
As the paradigms of our nation shift, what does our future hold? There is chatter about the economy, even of a global depression. We see ads that tell us to prepare for the worst and expect it to happen. Will our collective fears shape the future? As we slip further and further away from belief in Jesus Christ, will we see more and more calamities and fewer miracles? Jesus is the anchor of our souls. He is the one who gave us our agency to choose our own thoughts and to become what our thoughts create. He was the embodiment of abundant thinking. He said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 KJV). He taught that principle with every miracle He performed, but none so readily as the miracle of the loaves and fishes:
And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.
—Mark 6:35-44 KJV
Jesus disagreed with His disciples who wanted to send the people away to fend for themselves. He knew of their scarcity mentality. He instead looked at the resources of loaves and fishes and provided a meal for 5,000 people in the desert place. He made bread where there was scarcity and made abundance out of the fishes. He was teaching His disciples the principle of faith in His majestic power. We can have that same hope in His power, but we cannot fix our mind on scarcity and expect abundance.
How do we tap into His great power in our lives when everything points to disaster? How can we look at our bank account and see the numbers and not say, “There is only so much and no more”? How can we look at the clock and not say, “I don’t have time”?
When Jesus looked up into heaven and blessed the bread, I am certain His words were those of gratitude. His gratitude made the difference. His gratitude showed His faith in his Father in Heaven, and faith caused the miracle to happen.
There is power in gratitude. You cannot show or feel gratitude when you complain about what you do not have or make an endless grocery list of “I wish I had.” Gratitude recognizes abundance. It recognizes the giver of the gift, and it shows faith in a relationship with the giver. In short, gratitude is the doorway to an abundance mindset. We must first recognize, with gratitude, the resources we have, as Jesus did, then expect and work for the miracle. Jesus didn’t say, “Heavenly Father, show these people who I am. Let them see what a wonderful person I am." He was thinking of their hunger and their need to be fed, not His. We must keep that in mind when we seek miracles; our motives make a difference.
Jesus did not perform this miracle every day for every person, because not every person was ready to receive such a miracle. Handing out miracles to selfish, unbelieving people would have stunted their spiritual growth and harmed their relationship with Him. In fact, many people after His miracles wanted to make Him king, and the same people left Him because He did not promise to care for all their physical needs, and they did not understand His higher teachings. He asked his disciples sorrowfully, “Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:67-68 KJV). People must grow into the principle of gratitude and faith before they can truly understand and appreciate His miracles.
Faith is not a concept that is easily understood or used. It is a line-upon-line journey. It is a gradual paradigm shift from scarcity mentality to an abundant mentality. Covey defined the two mindsets, but it is one thing to define and another thing to embrace and internalize. Prayer is the key. Ask God to help you see your half-empty glass full and running over with blessings, and He will work miracles.
