Sharon Sharing God: "FAN THE FLAME" FRIDAY

Friday, November 25, 2011

"FAN THE FLAME" FRIDAY - Abundant

Welcome to "Fan the Flame" Friday.

This is a weekly post that will be "short and sweet" (kinda like me...)

Just a word and a phrase, a sentence or a question...just a little something to "fan the flame" of your creativity!

Today's word: abundant

What do you think of when you hear the word abundant?

How does the word abundant compare with words like ample, enough, sufficient, necessary?

How do you reconcile the idea of an abundant life in Christ with the reality of trials, struggles, and suffering?

Let me know what you think!!

"This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you…For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

BLOG = "Blessedly Leaning On God!"

6 comments:

Chatty CroneNovember 25, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Abundant to me means many things. It can mean more than enough or just enough - depending on what it is. love, sandie
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TriciaNovember 25, 2011 at 1:34 PM
When I hear "abundant" I think "more than enough", "more than I could even want".

The word "abundant" reminds me of the feeding of the 5000 with only 5 loaves and 2 fish. This was all the food they had to feed all the people yet God made it so that they all ate until they were full and still they had 12 baskets of leftovers! An abundant amount of food!

Even when we are faced with what seems like an impossible situation, we must trust that if we follow God, and remain close to Him, He will provide in abundance!
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bettyNovember 25, 2011 at 1:51 PM
I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving, Sharon! Abundant, lots of something, overflowing. Like God's grace and love, it is overflowing! Abundant is more than enough and then some more!

betty
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AnonymousNovember 25, 2011 at 8:21 PM
Abundant far exceeds ample, enough, sufficient, and necessary. It's more like extravagant, or extreme. That is just who God is...and what He provides. In the reality of trials, struggles, and suffering it takes an extreme focus on Jesus..Looking into His face, and remembering all the ways He's already blessed us. It takes looking for your thankfuls on purpose..and everytime you will come up with abundant!
Happy Thanksgiving...Gratitude..a change of the heart and mind.
Thanks for your wonderful words of wisdom..and challenges that make us think!
God Bless you Huge.
Julie
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CharlotteNovember 25, 2011 at 10:03 PM
Abundant...is a word that goes beyond my understanding. Whatever I can imagine, I'm sure it is more.
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DebbieNovember 27, 2011 at 5:42 PM
I remember coming here on Friday and trying to think what brilliant thing I might say.

I've still got nothing.

I think as others have said that abundant means more than enough. Maybe it's even more. Maybe it's more than anticipated or more than expected.

I think life with Christ, no matter the circumstances, is abundant. That's because His love and grace and peace is more than we can possibly anticipate.
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"So [I] have been greatly encouraged in the midst of [my] troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith. It gives [me] new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord. How [I] thank God for you!" (1 Thessalonians 3:7-9)

Thanks for your comments - it is such a joy to be sharing my journey with friends like YOU!

(NOTE: Anonymous comments will be removed. Thank you for understanding.)

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MY WORD FOR 2016

GRATEFUL

Grateful: feeling or showing thanks to someone for some helpful act; appreciative of benefits received; warmly or deeply thankful; indebted; beholden.

Word origin: 1550's, "pleasing to the mind," also "full of gratitude," from obsolete adj. grate "agreeable, thankful," from Latin gratus "pleasing" – derived from the same word origin as the word "grace."

The trick to changing your behavior is to become more thankful.

The practice of gratitude involves a focus on the present moment, on appreciating your life as it is today and what has made it so.

Let us begin an eternal quest to express in new and creative ways our thanks to God.

So I'm breathing in Your grace,

And I'm breathing out Your praise.

Let our prayers be the overflow of a grateful heart to God.

Three steps in prayer:

PRAISE – praise, reverence, worship, adoration, and awe for who God is and what He does

ASK – honest, earnest, and intense requests

THANK YOU – always end with thanksgiving for everything

Pulpit commentary:

In everything give thanks.

In every circumstance – in joy and in sorrow; for everything – for prosperity and for adversity; in every place – in the house of God and on the bed of sickness.

Christians should not only be engaged in constant prayer, but in constant thanksgiving.

For this – this thankful spirit – is the will of God, His desire.

God by the gift of his Son has laid us under the obligation of perpetual thanksgiving. Our whole lives ought to be one continued thank-offering for all the blessings of redemption.

Gill's Exposition:

Thanks are to be given to him for all things…

For all temporal good things;

for our beings, the preservation of them;

for food and raiment, and all the mercies of life;

for the means of grace, the word and ordinances, and the ministers of the Gospel;

for spiritual blessings, for electing, redeeming, regenerating, adopting, pardoning, justifying, and persevering grace:

for a meetness for heaven, a right unto it, and a good hope of it;

and especially for Jesus Christ, for such a…Saviour, and advocate with the Father, as he is; and for life, peace, joy, comfort, righteousness, and salvation in him.

Thanks should be given to God in every circumstance of life; in adversity, as Job did; when not in so comfortable and agreeable a frame of soul as to be wished for…even under the temptations of Satan…since the grace of God is sufficient to bear up under them, and deliver out of them.

[Give thanks] in afflictions of every kind, since they are all for good – temporal, or spiritual, or eternal.

WHAT IS LOVE?

Love is when you are missing some of your teeth but you're not afraid to smile because you know your friends will still love you even though some of you is missing.

By Emma K. - Age 6

"Out of the mouth of babes..."

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

Anonymous

When you are uncertain, it helps to have someone remind you what is true – someone who knows you well, who sees you, and keeps track of you – not just your body but your soul.

Emily Freeman

Sharon Sharing God

Friday, November 25, 2011

"FAN THE FLAME" FRIDAY - Abundant

6 comments:

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HOW GREAT THOU ART

ALL FOR HIS GLORY

I'D RATHER HAVE JESUS

THE GLORIFIED ONE

SERVING THE MOST HIGH

HE IS ALWAYS THERE, AND EVER NEAR