“Not today Satan.” That’s what I had to tell myself just this morning before my feet hit the floor. Have you been there? You know, you go to bed looking forward to the next day and all that’s going to be accomplished. You have the perfect plan to tackle it all! And then… overnight your plan falls apart before you barely have time to get vertical. I felt that happening to me yesterday and today. I was frustrated my plan wasn’t working and I knew I needed to write, needed to get things done. Seeds of doubt started settling in “You’re too tired to form a sentence.… You don’t know enough…. Your attention is needed more over here.…” But thankfully I recognized the lies and knew the author of them. Not today Satan.

The Lord is so gracious and generous, especially in these truth-revealing moments. I immediately remembered something my mom always says, “God gives you what you need right when you need it. He is never late.” I was gifted with that reminder just as I was re-reading this Scripture in Philippians this morning. The Lord reminded me “I have given you what you need.”

Wow. Right along-side Paul, WE ALL are fully supplied with Christ himself! All we have to do is ask. Thank you, Lord, for that real-time reminder.

Today’s word from the Lord makes me want to plaster this verse all over my house. Let’s read it again:

“But I have received everything in full, and I have an abundance. I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you provided — a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” Philippians 4:18

From what we know about Paul’s life, he was not living the life of a king by any means. He was writing the Church of Philippi from prison for goodness sake. But, he truly believed he had an abundance. I want to hone in on something else here as well… God was Paul’s supplier, but He also used fellow believers to deliver encouragement for Paul and provide for his needs. These people gave sacrificially from their hearts. They were the aroma of Christ.

Now, we have an added benefit of hindsight, seeing the full story, and knowing all of this is true. God is faithful to provide, Paul was indeed fully supplied — and so are we! But, do we believe this truth for ourselves? Do we really believe we have (or are) enough to participate in Kingdom work, to be the aroma of Christ? The word “enough” according to Merriam-Webster means to have what is needed. Paul considered himself to have more than enough, an abundance. Do we believe we have what it takes to participate in the abundant life ourselves, or to help someone else find his/her way there? Not just in material things, but in our coming and our going, in our words… in gospel conversations. Do we recognize Christ as our supplier? He gives us what we need right when we need it. He is never late. And that is enough.

Do we do our part to leave a fragrant offering, that aroma of Christ, so that others can experience abundance? Are we truly living abundant lives when we don’t share what God has gifted us with (resources, time, talents, etc)? Think about a step you can take today to share with someone else God’s goodness. It might be that it’s just those couple of extra minutes you wanted to spare in the conversation to have more quiet time to yourself, or it might be gifting a meal to someone who has had a challenging week.