There’s not enough. Hold on tight. Why can’t I have more? Why does she always have what I don’t have?
Have you ever had thoughts like these?
If so, thoughts like these often come from a scarcity mindset. What’s that?
A scarcity mindset are the thoughts or feelings that you don’t have enough of something so you must hold on tightly to what you do have. Or, there’s not enough of something and you have to get more. Scarcity is a strategy that advertisers use to make you feel the need to purchase their product. If there’s not enough or it’s going away, then I have to get it now!
A scarcity mindset can infect, not only how you feel about buying stuff, but also how you feel about people and situations in life. A scarcity mindset can affect your relationship with God and cause you to doubt His truth and promises!
Rearing It’s Ugly Head
A scarcity mindset can manifest itself through several different feelings, thoughts and attitudes.
Jealousy- Why does she get all the stuff? I don’t have enough or the right stuff.
Resentment- She doesn’t deserve that; I deserve it instead!
Isolation/ Feeling left out- No over ever includes me! I’m on the outside looking in!
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)- I’ll feel more accepted and validated if I say yes to all the things!
A scarcity mindset can show up in lots of different shades and variances. It can rear it’s ugly head in big and small ways.
Bah- Humbug
This deadly attitude shows up most often around our finances and money matters. If we don’t have enough money to do everything we need or want to do, it’s easy to feel some serious scarcity. Then, even more attitudes surface like stinginess, greediness, and being all around miserly- think Scrooge, Bah Humbug!!
If you find yourself not want to share what you have with others, clinging to what you have when there’s not enough, being resentful or jealous when something good happens to another person, then a scarcity mindset is working in you!
Where does it come from?
A scarcity mindset ultimately comes from the deadly belief that God isn’t enough or that God can’t meet your needs. This belief will lead you thinking you have to take matters into your own hands to get all you can for yourself because God can’t be trusted. These deadly attitudes will infect your heart because somehow it ‘pays them back’ for having what you don’t have which doesn’t even make sense when you say it out loud like that!
It All Started in the Garden
If you take this like of thinking all the back to the beginning, a scarcity mindset got it’s start way back in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had God’s word they could eat from any tree in the garden except for one. He had provided for them all kinds of wonderful trees from which to eat. His only rule was to not eat from that 1 tree. Adam and Eve fell for the temptation that God is holding out on them. By not getting to eat of that 1 tree, He must not be good or want good for them.
Focusing on the Wrong Thing
Adam and Eve set all their focus on what they didn’t have instead of what they already had, and that’s the core of a scarcity mindset! At the root, scarcity is a focus on what you lack, what you need, or what you don’t have.
If only I had *this*, I’ll be happy. If only I got more of *this*, I would be fulfilled. If only….If only…..
It affects so many areas of our lives at home, with our children and families, at work and even at church and in our ministries. Unity will be difficult to achieve when we’re constantly clinging to our own stuff and never freely giving to others!
The truth is with a scarcity mindset, you’ll never have enough. You’ll never be happy. You’ll always feel lacking. You’ll never be content!
Dig Your Way Out
The best way to dig your way out of a scarcity mindset is to consciously and deliberately focus on what God has and is providing. See the blessings and the provision already in front of you and thank Him for it. Whenever you feel those negative attitudes creeping up about what opportunities others have, start thanking God for the opportunities you have.
When you truly have a need, don’t hesitate to ask God to provide it for you. Then, while your waiting, be remembering all those times that He provided and came through. Replay that testimony of how God was so good!
Dust Off Some Promises
In the fogginess of scarcity, we likely lose sight or forget about what God has said about His provision for us. Dust off those promises and meditate on them!
Promises like:
my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory
exceedingly abundantly more that we can imagine
press down, shaken together
Jesus is Enough
Peel back all those layers of scarcity, the negative feelings towards others, the clinginess of your stuff…..when you get to the center of it all, the question really is…Is Jesus Enough?
It’s the same question asked back in the Garden of Eden, and it’s the same question God is asking you today?
Am I Enough?
Are you having a tough time answering that question? Do you recognize some resentment and jealousy creeping (maybe flooding) into your heart? Are you desperately clinging to what you have?
Please don’t live this way. There’s no life in it.
Join me at the WoW Facebook group where we’ll talk about this more. Contact me at womenofthewayth@gmail.com if you want to discuss it further!
~Amy