The Astounding Bounty of God’s Intended Reserve For Us
On a recent Sabbath morning, the bold rays of the dawn’s rising sun peeked over the tops of my orange trees. The surrounding light flooded through my small closet window into my dark bedroom. As I awakened, God planted a surprising seed for this blog with His radiant illumination. Indeed, all month I’d waited on Him for a topic. Eventually it led me to contemplate the astounding beauty of God’s intended reserve for us.
Beginning at the Beginning: Genesis
But I’m getting ahead of myself. That awakening? It was just the beginning of how God gently roused me from a sound night’s sleep. He immediately directed my drowsy thoughts, surprisingly, to Pharaoh’s dreams of the cows and corn in Genesis 41. It was out of left field. I hadn’t had steak or corn the night before, lol! For those fairly unfamiliar with this chapter, there’s much more to old Joe than just his amazing technicolor dream coat. Joseph’s eleven brothers sold him into slavery at a young age unbeknownst to his father, who thought he was dead. Joseph, the youngest of them all, then became a slave to an officer of Pharaoh.
While there, he interpreted dreams for some contemporaries. And eventually for Pharaoh himself. The ruler’s dream involved seven plump cows and seven thin cows, as well as seven ears of corn. In a nutshell, God told Joseph the prosperous country of Egypt would experience seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. The dream and its interpretation prompted Pharaoh to appoint commissioners. These men would oversee the land and take a fifth of the harvest to be held in reserve. The implemented strategy would circumvent the full impact of the extreme lack to be experienced during the famine. Eventually, Pharaoh appointed Joseph to supervise this plan of action and Egypt survived the seven years of lack.
Unpacking Lack and Reserve
In this oppressive pandemic time, with so much change and loss, it’s far easier to focus on our lack and more difficult to contemplate the value of reserve. You might be wondering exactly what reserve means. Reserve, defined as a noun, refers to a supply or commodity not needed for immediate use but kept secure and available. You may have stocked up on some canned goods during the pandemic as a reserve. Or perhaps you stashed rolls of toilet paper. Lack means the state of being without or not having enough of something. One lack many people experienced during the pandemic was a lack of social interaction. Even introverted people accustomed to long periods of isolation by choice found themselves lacking stimulation and companionship from the outside world.
There are a handful of off-the-grid deprivation-driven souls who soldier through life wearing their lack of nearly everything as a badge of honor. They indeed are a rarity. And of course, John the Baptist is in his own category when it comes to embracing his lack. He lived for long periods in the desert eating locusts and honey as recorded in Matthew 3. However, his filling of the Holy Spirit more than made up for what he lacked in creature comforts.
Most of us aren’t prepared or called to live like John. So what kind of reserve do we need? And in what areas? Sometimes it’s hard to know when we review the biblical lessons of hoarding manna that rots after a day as recorded in Exodus 16 and making sure we have enough oil for our lamps as recorded in the parable of the ten virgins. Let’s dive deeper into these tricky topics so we can attain further clarity.
Why We Need Reserve In Our Lives
It may sound preposterous to even question why we wouldn’t need reserve. Our world caters to instant gratification: entertainment, food, and fashion delivered right to your door. But so many people fail to retain reserve in many aspects of their lives. They lack required sleep and serenity eludes them. They are stressed to the limit and have no reserve of patience or temperance. Love and kindness elude them in their relationships and they wake up one day to find themselves adrift without meaningful connections. With so much emotional lack, it’s far easier for someone to overindulge in another area (however inappropriate or unrelated) than it is to address how to appropriately fill what is sorely lacking.
Here’s a true confession that provides a pertinent example. When my husband and I were parenting our autistic child at home, we were taxed emotionally, physically, and even spiritually at times. We remained consistent at keeping a date night but it almost always revolved around going out to dinner. We found ourselves routinely indulging in rich appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Though we weren’t fully aware of it at the time, we were trying to compensate for the joy and peace we didn’t have at the time. Though it was pleasurable in the moment, the overindulgence resulted in weight gain and alarming blood work. Unfortunately, these indulgences did little to alleviate the lack and even added new problems to solve.
If we strategize to lay in reserve the very thing we need before we need it, in the method and timing God lays it out for us, we neither hoard nor indulge. We engage in a kind of divine planning. And that’s the kind of attention to reserve vs. lack that honors God.
The Important Areas of Reserve: Practical, Spiritual, Social
I could wax poetic into the night about areas of our lives that could benefit from reserve. But let’s begin by looking at the literal, practical storehouses of provision Joseph discerned through his dream interpretation. God wants us to share our provision but He also wants us to make sure we have what we need. In the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25, five filled their lamps with oil while the others simply relied on what they already had inside.
When the bridegroom was delayed, all ten grew drowsy and slept. But when the bridegroom at last arrived, the five prepared maidens with the oil rose up to meet him. The other five begged them to share. The prepared maidens, knowing they would not have enough, urged them to go out and buy what they needed. While the unprepared were out, he came and collected those who were ready. When the others returned and petitioned for entry they were denied. The end of the parable ends with this sobering line: “Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
We don’t need to go into panic mode. God’s in control of today and tomorrow. But what oil do you need to stock up on? I’m not here to tell you to stock up on instant ramen or water purification tablets. Or to tell you when Christ is coming again. The Bible clearly says that “no one knows the day or the hour, not even the son of man” (at the time) in Matthew 4:36. But I am keeping my ears and eyes open for the signs and if God ever tells me to stock up on something I will certainly do it!
Absolutely nothing is more important than buttressing the walls of our spiritual storehouses.
Deuteronomy 6:6 tells us to “hide God’s word in our heart…” and that’s sound advice for many reasons. One reason many Christians believe memorizing scripture is crucial is because there may come a time when God’s word isn’t readily available to us. In the age when hundreds of Bible translations are available online that may be hard to believe. But in countries like China where the Bible is forbidden, a day could very well come where the Bible may be banished elsewhere. We can build up a reserve inside ourselves of God’s word in our hearts and minds. “…store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The reserve of God’s word in our minds is a priceless, secure treasure.
There’s a social reserve we can strive for as well.
It allows room for the giving and receiving of grace. This might sound less important than the other two areas of reserve we’ve examined. And in some ways that notion may be true. But in our current social and political climate, it’s easy to see that grace is sorely lacking in our society today. Tempers flare at intersections, school board meetings, political rallies, and at the family dinner table. Even daily discourse in our volatile political climate is tricky. Everyone appears to be one millisecond away from fisticuffs, silent treatment, or banishment on social media.
I’m working diligently in my own life to drink in the word of God so I am filled to the brim with His love and grace. Only then will I have enough in reserve to spare any dispensation. The old adage that “we can’t give out what we don’t take in” certainly rings true in this instance. I love how The Message Bible describes the blessing of generosity. in Proverbs 11:24, we read that “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.”
May we take seriously the charge and privilege of utilizing the astounding bounty of God’s intended reserve for us. May we strike a divine balance when it comes to provision and lack so we can honor God with all He’s entrusted to us.
Join Christian encourager/blogger/author Cindy LaFavre Yorks as she sojourns alongside you in your faith walk. Partner with her as she shares her travel tips for navigating life’s most challenging detours. Through personal storytelling and Bible application, Cindy cheers you on as you raise your white flag and deepen your trust in Him to develop an unshakeable faith to help you go the distance.
