A lot of times in our faith, we ask God for more; more presence, more favor, more funds. We might be feeling impatient because what we have been praying for has not been given. What we might have is the faith to ask for more, but not the capacity we need to receive or sustain it.
I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.
Exodus 23:28-30 NIV
God didn’t clear the land before the Israelites all at once. If He did, the land would be empty of their enemies, but the quality of the land would drop and would be overrun by wild animals. That move would reduce the quality of the blessing and make it harder for the Israelites to take possession of the land. Instead, as the Israelites increased little by little, God gave them a little more of the land until they increased enough to take possession of it entirely.
If God were to give us everything at once, even everything we ask for, there is no guarantee that we would know what to do with it all or be able to steward it well. There needs to be an increase from the people we are now to the people that God can entrust with more. If we want to be given more, we have to be trusted with what God has already given us. When our faith and capacity grows as we properly steward God’s blessings, then He will give us more.
How can we better steward what God has given to us?