Leftovers: Living in Divine Abundance
The day after Thanksgiving often finds us staring into refrigerators packed with containers of turkey, mashed potatoes, and dressing. Some people dread leftovers, but others relish the opportunity to enjoy those favorite flavors all over again. I’m a little partial to the leftover turkey sandwiches.
What if our spiritual lives operated on the same principle of abundance? What if God's provision wasn't just enough to get by, but overflowing with leftovers?
Consider the familiar story in John 6:5-14, where Jesus feeds thousands with five loaves and two fish. We often focus on the miracle itself—the multiplication of meager resources into a feast. But there's a detail that deserves closer attention: the twelve baskets of leftovers.
Think about that for a moment. Jesus didn't provide just barely enough food to keep people from starving. Everyone ate "until they were filled," and then the disciples gathered twelve full baskets of fragments. This wasn't miscalculation or waste. This was intentional abundance.
This miracle reveals something fundamental about God's character. He is a God of leftovers—a God of overflow, generosity, and abundance. When Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6), He wasn't promising a bare-minimum existence. He was promising satisfaction plus overflow.
God's generous nature is written into the fabric of creation itself. Technically, we could survive on a very limited diet—perhaps just chicken, cauliflower, cherries, and water. Our bodies would function. We'd never know what we were missing.
Instead, God created a world bursting with variety: countless proteins, grains, fruits, vegetables, spices, and flavors. The very existence of culinary arts testifies to God's extravagant creativity. He didn't have to make food enjoyable, but He did. He didn't have to give us taste buds capable of distinguishing thousands of flavors, but He did.
This physical abundance mirrors spiritual reality. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God doesn't reluctantly hand out dry crackers of morality. He pours out forgiveness, joy, peace, purpose, and power—and then gives us baskets of leftovers.
The question isn't whether God is willing to fill us. The question is: Are we hungry? Or have we stuffed ourselves so full of worldly distractions, entertainment, and sin that we have no appetite for God?
When Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were looking for Him, He responded with something remarkable. Stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:48-50).
Biological families are wonderful gifts, but they aren't always what we hope they'll be. Some families are estranged. Some are difficult. Some bring more stress than joy during the holidays. But here's the good news for those who pursue righteousness: when we come to Christ, we don't just get forgiveness—we get an extra family.
Church family is part of God's leftover generosity. These are people who will pray with us, walk with us, and help us pursue righteousness when we're tired and weak. Yes, church families have their quirks and challenges too, but unlike most biological families, God seats us at a table surrounded by others who are hungry for Him.
When your spiritual appetite wanes, sometimes God uses the hunger of others to rekindle your own. That's the beauty of extra people God places in our lives, there's always more family, more support, more encouragement than we could manufacture on our own.
Paul's prayer for the Ephesians contains one of the most powerful promises in Scripture: "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory" (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Notice the context. Paul is praying for inner power—the strength to live holy and pleasing lives. He asks that believers would "be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being" (Ephesians 3:16).
As Christians, we have within us the ability to live godly lives. God hasn't given us a little power. He's given us great power—the Holy Spirit Himself. Yet many believers live their entire lives unaware of this dynamic spiritual power. They're like Superman living as Clark Kent, never realizing the "S" on their chest represents supernatural strength.
If you're hungry for righteousness, you don't just need more willpower—you need Holy Spirit power. God has already equipped you with far more than enough for anyone who truly wants to walk with Him. That's leftover power.
But now I want you to consider what I call Leftover Grace. Grace means "gift"—God giving us what we don't deserve: love, mercy, forgiveness, and eternal life. When we deserve wrath, condemnation, and punishment, He offers grace instead.
What's beautiful is that God is not stingy with His grace. He doesn't dispense it with an eyedropper; He uses a bucket. Jesus didn't shed just one drop of blood on Calvary—He poured it out. As Romans 5:20 declares, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."
You have not been "barely" saved by grace. You are fully and completely saved, saturated and covered by God's grace. And here's the stunning truth: you cannot out-sin the grace of God.
And here is why this matters. People who don't see their sin will never hunger for righteousness. But people who know how much they've blown it, how deeply they need forgiveness—that's where hunger begins. And when we come hungry, we find that His grace has leftovers.
Instead of running from God in shame when we stumble, we can run to Him again and again, because the table of grace is still set and there's plenty left over.
In 2 Kings 6:16-17, when Elisha's servant panicked at the sight of a hostile army, Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes. Suddenly the servant saw that "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire." The provisions were already there—he just couldn't see them.
The same is true for us. God's abundance surrounds us, but we see what we're looking for. We hunger for what we feed on.
After the devastation at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Admiral Chester Nimitz shocked his crew by pointing out three critical mistakes the Japanese had made—mistakes that left America's capacity for recovery intact. Where others saw only destruction, he saw provision and possibility. What you see depends entirely on your focus.
Are you truly hungry for Jesus, His will, His ways? Or have you lost your appetite by filling up on lesser things?
The invitation stands: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." When you come to Him hungry, you will not leave empty. He will fill you—and when you look back over your life, you'll smile and simply say: Thank God for leftovers.
Dr. Christopher Young
What if our spiritual lives operated on the same principle of abundance? What if God's provision wasn't just enough to get by, but overflowing with leftovers?
Consider the familiar story in John 6:5-14, where Jesus feeds thousands with five loaves and two fish. We often focus on the miracle itself—the multiplication of meager resources into a feast. But there's a detail that deserves closer attention: the twelve baskets of leftovers.
Think about that for a moment. Jesus didn't provide just barely enough food to keep people from starving. Everyone ate "until they were filled," and then the disciples gathered twelve full baskets of fragments. This wasn't miscalculation or waste. This was intentional abundance.
This miracle reveals something fundamental about God's character. He is a God of leftovers—a God of overflow, generosity, and abundance. When Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6), He wasn't promising a bare-minimum existence. He was promising satisfaction plus overflow.
God's generous nature is written into the fabric of creation itself. Technically, we could survive on a very limited diet—perhaps just chicken, cauliflower, cherries, and water. Our bodies would function. We'd never know what we were missing.
Instead, God created a world bursting with variety: countless proteins, grains, fruits, vegetables, spices, and flavors. The very existence of culinary arts testifies to God's extravagant creativity. He didn't have to make food enjoyable, but He did. He didn't have to give us taste buds capable of distinguishing thousands of flavors, but He did.
This physical abundance mirrors spiritual reality. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God doesn't reluctantly hand out dry crackers of morality. He pours out forgiveness, joy, peace, purpose, and power—and then gives us baskets of leftovers.
The question isn't whether God is willing to fill us. The question is: Are we hungry? Or have we stuffed ourselves so full of worldly distractions, entertainment, and sin that we have no appetite for God?
When Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were looking for Him, He responded with something remarkable. Stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:48-50).
Biological families are wonderful gifts, but they aren't always what we hope they'll be. Some families are estranged. Some are difficult. Some bring more stress than joy during the holidays. But here's the good news for those who pursue righteousness: when we come to Christ, we don't just get forgiveness—we get an extra family.
Church family is part of God's leftover generosity. These are people who will pray with us, walk with us, and help us pursue righteousness when we're tired and weak. Yes, church families have their quirks and challenges too, but unlike most biological families, God seats us at a table surrounded by others who are hungry for Him.
When your spiritual appetite wanes, sometimes God uses the hunger of others to rekindle your own. That's the beauty of extra people God places in our lives, there's always more family, more support, more encouragement than we could manufacture on our own.
Paul's prayer for the Ephesians contains one of the most powerful promises in Scripture: "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory" (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Notice the context. Paul is praying for inner power—the strength to live holy and pleasing lives. He asks that believers would "be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being" (Ephesians 3:16).
As Christians, we have within us the ability to live godly lives. God hasn't given us a little power. He's given us great power—the Holy Spirit Himself. Yet many believers live their entire lives unaware of this dynamic spiritual power. They're like Superman living as Clark Kent, never realizing the "S" on their chest represents supernatural strength.
If you're hungry for righteousness, you don't just need more willpower—you need Holy Spirit power. God has already equipped you with far more than enough for anyone who truly wants to walk with Him. That's leftover power.
But now I want you to consider what I call Leftover Grace. Grace means "gift"—God giving us what we don't deserve: love, mercy, forgiveness, and eternal life. When we deserve wrath, condemnation, and punishment, He offers grace instead.
What's beautiful is that God is not stingy with His grace. He doesn't dispense it with an eyedropper; He uses a bucket. Jesus didn't shed just one drop of blood on Calvary—He poured it out. As Romans 5:20 declares, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."
You have not been "barely" saved by grace. You are fully and completely saved, saturated and covered by God's grace. And here's the stunning truth: you cannot out-sin the grace of God.
And here is why this matters. People who don't see their sin will never hunger for righteousness. But people who know how much they've blown it, how deeply they need forgiveness—that's where hunger begins. And when we come hungry, we find that His grace has leftovers.
Instead of running from God in shame when we stumble, we can run to Him again and again, because the table of grace is still set and there's plenty left over.
In 2 Kings 6:16-17, when Elisha's servant panicked at the sight of a hostile army, Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes. Suddenly the servant saw that "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire." The provisions were already there—he just couldn't see them.
The same is true for us. God's abundance surrounds us, but we see what we're looking for. We hunger for what we feed on.
After the devastation at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Admiral Chester Nimitz shocked his crew by pointing out three critical mistakes the Japanese had made—mistakes that left America's capacity for recovery intact. Where others saw only destruction, he saw provision and possibility. What you see depends entirely on your focus.
Are you truly hungry for Jesus, His will, His ways? Or have you lost your appetite by filling up on lesser things?
The invitation stands: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." When you come to Him hungry, you will not leave empty. He will fill you—and when you look back over your life, you'll smile and simply say: Thank God for leftovers.
Dr. Christopher Young
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