I am going to be quite honest with you, this is one of those things that sometimes I still struggle with. It’s hard to picture anything but the scarcity in things. Whether it is the empty bank account, the pipeline of leads, page views or even the small amount of likes and shares.
Tony Robbins once said “Where focus goes energy goes” and that is so true when it comes to seeing what you have missing. You can’t have a state of abundance if you are constantly looking at what you don’t have.
Dan Lok had a very interesting point as far as starting your own business. He said never quit a job to start a business because there it’s going to come to a point that your savings will begin to deplete while you are still trying to get the business off the ground. And when that happens you are going to start focusing on scarcity and self-sabotage yourself by a limiting mindset.
Again I am going to be completely honest with you. I thought this whole mindset thing was totally bogus. I have spoken to a lot and been around a lot of successful people and they always bring up that mindset is the key ingredient for success. And now I get it. If you are constantly thinking and worrying about how little you have, how are you supposed to receive more.
THAT is the first sin that was done in the Garden of Eden. We all think it was the fact that Eve disobeyed but we fail to realize that she disobeyed because of her mindset. Her mindset was shifted FIRST.
Let me explain.
Genesis 2:16, And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.
I don’t know about you but ‘free to eat from any’ seem like words of abundance.
As you can see in the comic above so awesomely illustrated by Dan Leitha. The tree of knowledge of good and evil lies right in the middle of the entire garden. Which means that Eve … along with Adam had to go through all of the abundance to get to the only tree that they were told not to eat from.
All Satan had to do was switch a couple of words around in chapter 3 of Genesis.
He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees** in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
** Ok, first of all what happened to ‘Free to eat from any’?
Human condition itself was our down fall. We always tend to look at the worst or the lack of things first. Eve being the second person on earth did that. Her own mindset removed the words that reflected abundance and only focused on the what she could not have, even in the midst of being surrounded in abundance.
So we aren’t in the Garden of Eden anymore but in the same sense we are surrounded by abundance. Someone once told me that the sun shines for everyone and that is true. We are always worried about not having enough when there is plenty to go around and then some.
Dan Lok may be right in some aspects which I have found out the hard way. But in Christ he is wrong. Knowing that you serve a God of abundance your entire mind shifts.
“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”2 Corinthians 9:8
One of my favorite stories in the bible that reflects this so perfectly is the miracle of the seven loaves and fish.
They had 5,000 people to feed and Jesus instructed his disciples to feed them.
“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
“Bring them here to me,” he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Two key points that you need to take notice here. First, he gave thanks. In order to open up the floodgates of all that is good, you need to start giving thanks. For everything and anything that you have. Being thankful is a crucial first step.
And second, he had left overs! You have to ask yourself, even if for a second why would he have left overs after feeding 5,000 plus people. Because he is a God of abundance.
Once you realize just how much abundance there is in the world and everything that God has already provided you can start succeeding.
Ok, so it is easier said than done. But there are certain things that you can do to start allowing your mind to go from a state of scarcity to a state of abundance.
Two things you can start doing to make a shift in mindset:
- Your tithe (I will be going over this particular topic more in depth later)
- Charity (Yes they are different)
I am not going to lecture you on how we should be giving and the benefits of it. That will be for a whole different post. We are talking about abundance on this one.
Now here is what I love about giving. When you tithe and give to charities you are physically doing something that will start programming your mind. You aren’t giving with a scarcity mindset.
For example, if you were somehow lost in the middle of a desert and only had a gallon of water, you would ration it out between you and loved ones. But let’s say you were in an oasis with crystal clear waters, would you still be rationing out your water supply?
You may not have you bank account rolling but giving opens your hand, and adjusting your mind that there is more to come. Afterall you can’t receive with a closed fist.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10