Do You Have a Shortage or a Surplus Mindset?

Is your life overflowing? If you’re like most people, it may be overflowing, but not with goodness. So many people have overbooked their calendars, overspent their money, overdrawn their credit, overloaded their emotions, overworked their bodies, overcrowded their days, and overvalued the approval of others. As a result, they wind up overstressed, overanxious, and overwhelmed—and they’re over it! They are far from experiencing the goodness of God.

Why do we do let ourselves get overextended? Often the fear of missing out motivates us to do more. But the truth is you’re not missing out on anything when you rest in the goodness and provision of God.

God wants to move you from being overwhelmed to overflowing. He wants to meet all your needs—and he can! First, you need to recognize two fundamentally different approaches to life that either keep you from or bring you into God’s abundance. You can approach life with a shortage mindset or a surplus mindset.

With a shortage mindset, you constantly think, “I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough energy. I don’t have enough contacts, opportunities, knowledge, education, or whatever.” It’s the sense that you’re always a day late and a dollar short. A shortage mindset focuses on your limited resources, and the result is an overwhelmed life.

A surplus mindset focuses on God’s limitless resources, and the result is an overflowing life.

Have you ever worried that the person breathing next to you is stealing your air? Of course not. You know that God created more than enough air for everybody to have all the air we need.

Think of God’s provision like this: God doesn’t give us one pie. He’s a pie factory! He’ll never run out. The Bible includes words like abundance, plentiful, abounding, and bountiful to describe what God has to offer you. God has more than enough to meet all your needs and everybody else’s needs at the same time.

Jesus said, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (John 10:10 The Message).

You don’t have to worry about running short of anything, because God is the source of your life. He can turn on one faucet and turn off another. You can lose one job, and he can provide another. He wants to fill you beyond capacity with an endless supply of his goodness, joy, blessing, hope, and peace.