Another common scarcity mindset involves time. We really love being busy. A packed schedule gives the illusion of value in our culture. In all honesty, we worship being busy. We worship the scarcity mindset of not enough time because it feeds our identity of being needed. This mindset quickly becomes a stronghold that is not easily broken as we believe our identity is rooted in what we do.
When we do not have a proper perspective of time, we limit the work of God in our life. Our view of time and our work is distorted, and we limit ourselves into scarcity.
How do we break the stronghold of scarcity of time? What does God ask of us to break this stronghold?
The Old Testament consistently calls us to give 1 day every week or keep the Sabbath to keep time in proper perspective. God asks even more of our time than of our money. Resting on the Sabbath asks us to give 1/7th or 14% of our time. We see in Isaiah 58:13-14 blessing comes from giving our time.
“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
Keeping the Sabbath disrupts our relationship with time and breaks through the stronghold of scarcity of time. God asks more time than money because your relationship with time, your mindset of time will keep you stuck. When you have an abundance mindset, nurtured through the practice of Sabbath, you have freedom to live into your Kingdom purpose.
Do you see the abundance that comes from keeping the Sabbath?
Joy, riding on heights, and feasting. These are words of abundance. God explains this is the result of keeping the Sabbath.
What do you do on a Sabbath? What does rest look like? Ultimately, resting is different for each of us, but it starts with remembering who you are and how you were created. To implement the practice of Sabbath, we need to disrupt how we spend our time one day a week. Maybe it is a break from email, text or social media. Maybe it is time in nature or with friends and family.
I highly suggest it begins and ends with prayer and scripture pointing you back to your creator and reflecting on the gifts and talents He specifically created you with.
Sabbath is a practice and a discipline. It may take time to figure out exactly how it works for you, and it may change throughout different seasons. However, over time you will experience that the time of reflection and recalibration will impact the rest of time, leading to abundance where there was once scarcity.
KATHY PIERBURG 