Cattle and God's Economy

"For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills."

Psalm 50:10 (ESV)

I love this verse for a myriad of reasons. I love it's bluntness. I love it's provision. But I especially love it for its reassurance. Like many church planters, I go through long stretches when I feel less like a missionary and more like the crippled man by the pool at Bethesda in John 5. I want something to happen, but I've been waiting so long with all the practical odds stacked against me that Jesus has to get in my face sometimes. Through the Spirit I am prompted with questions like, "Do you even want to serve me anymore?" Ouch!

Maybe you are in that dry place as well? Maybe you are waiting for someone else to stir waters or make provision? After all, you're tired, you're beat up, you're poor, you're failing.

I remind myself that everything is God's including my mission, my provision and my church. In a true cultural context, Psalm 50:10 speaks to wealth and need. An ancient or patriarch who had cattle covering a hillside was well off, indeed. Yet God says that all the cattle are his and those cattle span a thousand hills. This hyperbole alludes to his unlimited resources.

You and I are not poor. Sometimes we look at our own hill, in our community and we see nothing but inability, loss, and inadequacy. Yet, unbeknownst to us, on another hill God is (quite easily) peeling off a few cattle for the work we're a part of - or maybe a work we're not a part of but will merely reap the fruit of.

Here's my point of encouragement to both of us: God can do things and resource things as he sees fit that rarely fit in our understanding of our economy. God doesn't operate in a world of "end sum games". I pray that rather than wallowing, waiting for some "in your face" wakeup call from Jesus, you go to Him in prayer and faithful lay out your vision and trust God to provide as He sees fit. Pray for cattle you can't see or imagine. Dream of hillsides that are greener than the ones you see. Maybe it's a church 1,000 miles away that is seeking a church planter to partner with? Maybe it's a new family who just moved into your community and is unloading a moving truck, praying for a church plant just like the one they had to leave. Maybe it's a retired pastor looking for a place that he can invest his latter years. You get the picture.

You go and pray and faithfully do...trust God in His economy to peel off the cattle.