Stress Test Devotional April 27
April 27, 2024
GENESIS 41:32-36 | And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. Now therefore let Pharaoh select a man who is discerning and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plenteous years. Let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and lay up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to befall the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.”
America is a land of surplus that can turn into surfeit. Surplus is important! Surplus allows us to move from survival mode to living lives that include education and art, religious development and philanthropy. Surplus fuels the growth that allows investment in healthcare advances, new energy sources, and many forms of human development. Socially and individually, surplus is key to the advance of humankind! But surplus can quickly surfeit.
More is a curse as well as a blessing. Too much food, for instance, dulls sense and hurts health. An over abundance of trivial choices wastes too much time in decision making. Accumulation becomes an end in itself, and selfishness replaces sharing as a key value. We become experts in refined and exciting sensation, but are strangers to transformation.
Have you experienced the great side of surplus?
How about it’s dangers?
How did Joseph employ surplus to Egypt’s problems?
