Celebrating God’s Abundance - Bible Study Resource with 10 Study Points

Compiled by Rev. Steve Nofel.

You Are Enough I

1Corinthians 1:4-5

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been

given you in Christ Jesus,  5  for in every way you have been enriched in him, in

speech and knowledge of every kind.

Enrichment in Christ isn’t about prosperity or privilege. It’s about the divine

gifts of wisdom, grace and speech that flow through the community. When we

doubt our adequacy, it’s easy to forge that spiritual riches are already ours. God

equips us for the work we’re called to do.

Too often, we focus on what we aren’t – What we don’t know, don’t have or

haven’t achieved. Paul invites us to focus instead on what God has already placed

within us. You are not spiritually deficient. The Spirit is generous. Grace is

Abundant. We’ve been boosted by the grace of Christ within us.

Take inventory – not of your bank account but of your spiritual storehouse.

What gifts has God entrusted to you? What has God grown in you that you can

offer to others.

There is enough. You are enough. In Christ we are enriched to bless the

world.

Prayer: Generous God, thank you for enriching me with your grace. Let me live

today from a place of abundance, not scarcity. Amen.

These Days: Daily Devotions for Living by Faith: January, February, March,

Copyright 2026, Presbyterian Publishing House. Thursday, January 15, 2026.

Libby Tedder Hugus, Casper, Wyoming

You Are Enough II

1Corinthians 1:1-3

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother

Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in

Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on

the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord [a]  and ours: Grace to you and

peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whenever I celebrate baptism I always ask the parents or the person to be

baptized: What name do you give your child?  What is your name? I get a funniest

looks, I can see them thinking, “You know us. What a dumb question.”

We baptize by name because Christ claims each of us by name.

Then as congregations, we promise / make covenant to help the newly

baptized live into the name Child of God.  And the only way to do so, is if we work

at it and work hard to live into the name ourselves as we pass it on.

Paul (a name representing all the Children of God), an Apostle of Christ Jesus by

the will of God. The very defining moment of Paul's life was being knocked down

on the road to Damascus.  It is one of the most repeated stories in the whole Bible. 

Between Acts and the Epistles, it is told and retold 6 times.

Paul was incredibly blessed in that the Risen Christ spoke directly to him,

calling him to faith and ministry.  Most of us have not had this blessed experience,

but here you are by the will of God. All of us have been called to faith, you have

been called by name by Almighty God.

You have been called by name by God who has known you by name from

before time even existed.  You are God’s beloved.  God has always protected you

in the shadow of His wings.  God became human for you.  God died and is risen

for you – YOU! 

And you are also an Apostle.  A Sent One of God.

Paul readily admitted it wasn't always easy being an apostle. I believe Paul

carried the sting of his regret as THE persecutor of the church of Christ.  But it

didn't stop him from becoming an Apostle - a sent one of Christ.  It kept him

humble but didn't stop him.

We all have regrets– instances of failing Jesus and His people. I often think,

Lord, I am not worthy.  I know that.  And if I only listened to this voice I wouldn't,

couldn’t do what I do.  I would always carry the burden that I am not enough.

You are apostles of Christ Jesus. Are you worthy? No. Are you loved and

called? Yes. In Christ you are enough.

One day I was wandering through the Fellowship Hall at Covenant

Church. It is a busy church with many groups using the building.

That day, I noticed white board that usually lives there was written on. 

Obviously, young children had been drawing on it.  White boards are magnets to

kids aren';t they?  So, I got the cleaning stuff and a rag and set to work.  I turned it

around to clean the back and this is what I saw. I don’t know who wrote this or

which group wrote it.

This one, three-word sentence sums up it all up: I am enough! I am what I

am by the Grace of God. And God thinks you are great.

We Have An Abundance of God I

In life and in death we belong to God.

Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the love of God,

and the communion of the Holy Spirit,

we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel,

whom alone we worship and serve. – A Brief Statement of Faith

Psalm 91

1  You who live in the shelter of the Most High,

    who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, [a]

2  will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress;

    my God, in whom I trust.’

3  For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler

    and from the deadly pestilence;

4  he will cover you with his pinions,

    and under his wings you will find refuge;

    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

5  You will not fear the terror of the night,

    or the arrow that flies by day,

6  or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,

    or the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7  A thousand may fall at your side,

    ten thousand at your right hand,

    but it will not come near you.

8  You will only look with your eyes

    and see the punishment of the wicked.

9  Because you have made the Lord your refuge, [b]

    the Most High your dwelling-place,

10  no evil shall befall you,

    no scourge come near your tent.

11  For he will command his angels concerning you

    to guard you in all your ways.

12  On their hands they will bear you up,

    so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.

13  You will tread on the lion and the adder,

    the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.

14  Those who love me, I will deliver;

    I will protect those who know my name.

15  When they call to me, I will answer them;

    I will be with them in trouble,

    I will rescue them and honour them.

16  With long life I will satisfy them,

    and show them my salvation.

We do not travel alone. God is with us every step of the way. Psalm 91 is the

deep and meaningful expression of our assurance of God’s presence and

protection.

The people of the Hebrew Scriptures knew this presence and protection

firsthand. Through all their troubles and dangers, exiles and sinful actions, God

was there. God protected God’s people. God meets danger and uncertainty and our

weakness with presence and protection.

Barbara Brown Taylor wrote the Divine Presence does not fail. God’s hands

promise rescue. We are not and cannot be exempt from dangers, doubts,

difficulties, lack of confidence in who we are, or anything else God’s intervention

is not what we experience as much as simply the divine presence. God is with us.

God holds us. God upholds us not matter what.

Prayer: Dear God, we thank you that we live in the great assurance of the Son of

God’s promise, “I am with you always until the end of the age. Amen.

Donald J. McKim, Living into Lent, Witherspoon Press,2013, Published in 2020 by

Westminster, John Knox Press. Pages 5 and 81,

We Have An Abundance of God

Romans 8: 31-39

31  What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against

us?  32  He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he

not with him also give us everything else?  33  Who will bring any charge against

God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  34  Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who

died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes

for us. [w]   35  Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress,

or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  36  As it is written,

‘For your sake we are being killed all day long;

    we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’

37  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved

us.  38  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor

things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  39  nor height, nor depth, nor

anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in

Christ Jesus our Lord.

Prayer: Dear God, who is for us and with us and in us, we thank you for the ultimate

assurance. In Jesus Christ nothing, NOTHING can separate us from your love in

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We Have an Abundance of God with Us

Matthew 1:20-23

But just when he (Joseph) had resolved to do this (put Mary away quietly), an

angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do

not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the

Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save

his people from their sins.’  All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by

the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and

they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’

The message of the Angel about Mary’s pregnancy was the statement that

God was doing something new.

How often do we miss the new thing God is doing? How often do we cling

to the old patterns because they are familiar, safe, or socially acceptable? How

often do we default to what we know instead of open to the newly possible?

Matthew does not linger over the details of the birth. Instead, he emphasizes

the name Emmanuel: “God with us.” This is another unimagined turn – that God

would become so humble, so vulnerable, to not only be one of us but to take on the

flesh of a newborn child. God is not distant. God is with us, surprisingly,

shockingly, lovingly in the here and now.

Where might God be inviting us to release an old pattern, habit or

assumption to make room for something new? How might “God with us” change

our understanding of our current circumstances?

Prayer: Emmanuel, God-with-us, open our eyes to the new thing you are doing. When we

cling to old habits, loosen our grip. When we resist your surprising grace, soften our

hearts. Help us to trust that your presence is always with us, even in the

unexpected. Amen.

Teri McDowell Ott, 2026 Lenten Devotional: Discipleship in a Divided Age: A

Lenten Journey through Matthew’s Gospel, The Presbyterian Outlook, 2026, page

5.

Jesus Meets Us Where We Are

John 20:11-14

11  But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to

look into the tomb;  12  and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of

Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.  13  They said to her,

‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my

Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’  14  When she had said this, she

turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 

John 20:19

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the

house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came

and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 

John 21:1-4

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of

Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way.  2  Gathered there together were Simon

Peter, Thomas called the Twin, [a]  Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of

Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.  3  Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going

fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the

boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4  Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the

beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 

Luke 24:13-15

13  Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about

seven miles from Jerusalem,  14  and talking with each other about all these things

that had happened.  15  While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came

near and went with them.

The Risen Jesus meets them where they are at. Not where he hopes they will

be or where we think we should be.

Prayer: God, open our eyes to the places where you meet us. When we feel uncertain or

distant, teach us to recognize your presence in unlikely places and unexpected

people. May our seeing lead to courageous faith until our lives reflect the

boundless opportunities, possibilities in Jesus Christ. Amen. Ott. Page 35

Kingdom of God Abundance

Matthew 6:33-34

But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these

things will be given to you as well. ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for

tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.\

Reformed theologian Karl Barth was among the first to identify the

theological errors in the views of the “German Christians.” Barth, later to be the

key author of the Barmen Declaration, discussed this subject in a short book.

He especially called out the habit of asserting that new revelation is

disclosed in a nation’s current affairs and to derive from it actionable divine intent:

“... in our anxiety in face of existing dangers we no longer put our whole

trust in the authority of God’s Word, but we think we ought to come to its

aid with all sorts of contrivances, and we thus throw quite aside our

confidence in the Word’s power to triumph. ... we think ourselves capable

of facing, solving and molding definite problems better from some other

source than that from and by means of God’s Word.”

In consequence, we divide our hearts between God’s Word and all kinds of

other things we ourselves invest with divine glory. Barth famously summed up the

end result:

“... this means that under the stormy assault of ‘principalities, powers and

rulers of this world’s darkness,’ we seek for God elsewhere than in his

Word, and seek his Word somewhere else than in Jesus Christ, and seek

Jesus Christ elsewhere than in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New

Testaments. And so we become as those who do not seek for God at all.”

90 Years Barmen Declaration of Faith (1934)

Prayer: Heavenly God please let us know that you are enough. You lead and guide. You

give us the abundance of grace to face any situation. Help us to seek your will

without fear. Amen.

We Bear the Image of God

Matthew 22:19-20

Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. Then he said

to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’

Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the

emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’

Of course, we all know the story. Caesar’s image is on the coin, so he tells

them to let the coin go. Whereas God’s image is on us. Our whole life being

belongs to God: our allegiance, our conscience, our course, our hope and our trust.

We remember whose image we bear. We remember God’s compassion and

God’s vision and God’s grace for human flourishing. Remember whose image we

bear. Our loyalty is to God whose imprint is on every human life.

Prayer: God of all, claim our hearts again. When lesser things demand our fear or

our silence, remind us whose image we bear. Give us courage to honor you with

our choices, my voice and my life. Amen.

Ott, page 44.

Change Can be Daunting – I

Matthew 9:17

Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the

wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh

wineskins, and so both are preserved.’

The newness of Jesus’ ministry does not mean discarding the old. As Jesus

says in the Sermon on the Mount, he has not come to abolish the law or the

prophets, but instead to fulfill their deepest purpose (Mt. 5:17). The problem isn’t

the tradition – it’s how tightly we cling to it. We cannot put new wine into old

wineskins, Jesus teaches – “Otherwise the skins burst.” New wine requires new

vessels – not because the old wine was worthless but because the new wine is still

alive, fermenting, expanding, growing.

The life of faith is like that God is still fermenting something in us. Yet

churches – and church people – can be tempted to hold tightly to what we know, to

what feels familiar to what has worked before. Change can feel l like loss.

But Jesus doesn’t call us to throw away our history. He calls us to make it

newly meaningful for generations who come after us – to let the same Gospel

stretch, breathe, and take shape in ways we could never have imagined.

Prayer: God of the ever-living Word, keep us open to your newness. Honor the traditions

that have formed us, and give us courage to let your Spirit reshape them for this

moment. Make us vessels, flexible and faithful, ready to hod the new wine of your

grace. Amen.

Ott, page 23

Change Can be Daunting – II

Matthew 15:25-28 – Canaanite Woman

25  But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’  26  He answered, ‘It is

not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’  27  She said, ‘Yes, Lord,

yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’  28  Then Jesus

answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’

And her daughter was healed instantly.

The tension of this encounter is dramatic because it situates us as readers in

a borderland between old and new, insider and outsider, expectation and surprise.

Our churches know this borderland well. We stand between what once worked and

what no longer does, between familiar patterns and an uncertain future. In these

space we feel stretched thin, anxious, unsure of what comes next.

But borderlands are places where something new is born from courageous

persistence. The woman’s trusts that Jesus’ mercy is broader than the boundaries

human draw. She challenges him not with hostilely but with hope.

She recognizes and witnesses that Jesus’ ministry expands beyond Israel . A

marginalized woman – powerless by every social measure – becomes the

catalyst for grace widening to the whole world.

Prayer: Dear God, give us the courage of the Canaanite woman – persistent, bod, holpeful.

Break open the boundaries we cling to and widen our hearts for the ministry you

call us to embrace. Amen.

Ott page 34

Mustard Seed Churches

Matthew 13:31-32

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard

seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but

when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds

of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed – tiny,

unimpressive, practically invisible in your hand. But when planted, it grows into

something far larger than anyone expected. Not a towering cedar or a majestic

sequoia, but a mustard bush: a scrappy, persistent, wildly spreading plant that

refuses to stay contained.

Sometimes churches forget and neglect their value. Many small

congregations look at larger churches with professional choir, multiple staff and

brand-new buildings and wonder. “what do we have to offer?” That crisis of

confidence deepens when they can’t find a pastor.

Congregations in that situation can find it easy to believe they have nothing

work claiming.

But that’s simply not true.

A church’s value is not defined by its size, staff or sanctuary count. The

church is not a building. The church is not a building or budget line. It’s the living

Body of Christ. Still, we church folks often think too small. We are too shy about

what we have to offer. Too humble to speak joyfully about the hope we carry. We

don’t want to be those “pushy” Christians so we whisper the God News into a

world that’s screaming bad news.

Mustard seed work starts small and grows quietly, yet is spreads farther than

we can imagine. Real ministry isn’t epic. It’s the steady accumulation of small,

almost imperceptible acts: a phone call returned, a prayer whispered, a meal

delivered, a presence offered.

Mustard seed faith does not require heroics. It requires persistence, hope and

the willingness to offer what we have, believing God will grow it into something

more.

Prayer: God of mustard seeds, teach us not to despise small beginnings. Expand our vision,

enlarge our courage and help us believe that you can grow your Kingdom through

our ordinary gifts. Make us bold in sharing you love, persistent in sowing hop and

joyful in watching your grace take root. Amen.

Jesus Provides the Abundance

Matthew 14:13-21

13  Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place

by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the

towns.  14  When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for

them and cured their sick.  15  When it was evening, the disciples came to him and

said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so

that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’  16  Jesus said to

them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’  17  They replied,

‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’  18  And he said, ‘Bring them

here to me.’  19  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five

loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves,

and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  20  And all

ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces,

twelve baskets full.  21  And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides

women and children.

God provides abundance, but someone has to organize its distribution.

Someone has to imagine a better way, gather volunteers, solve the logistics and

show up day after day. Feeding the hungry (that is all ministry) takes creativity,

commitment and a willingness to give not from our abundance but our time and

talent.

Prayer: Generous God, you multiply our offerings. Help us trust your abundance, organize

our resources for your sake and participate faithfully in your work now and

forever. Amen.

Ott, page 33.