Volume 18: Keep It Simple

KEEP IT SIMPLE

One of the greatest lies our generation has embraced is that more always means better.

More money.
More possessions.
More followers.
More influence.
More recognition.
More success.

We have been conditioned to believe that if we keep accumulating, we will eventually arrive at satisfaction. Yet the more our world gains, the more restless it seems to become.

God has never measured life that way.

The God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills is not impressed by what fills your hands. He is interested in what fills your heart.

LESS IS MORE

Have you ever heard the expression, “Less is more?”

Although the phrase is not found in Scripture, its principle echoes throughout the Bible.

The same God who revealed Himself as Jehovah Jireh—“The LORD Will Provide” (Genesis 22:14)—also revealed Himself as El Shaddai—the All-Sufficient God, often described as the God who is more than enough. Yet this all-sufficient God repeatedly chooses the simple things to confound the wise.

He chose a shepherd instead of a king. He chose a manger instead of a palace. He chose fishermen instead of scholars.
He chose a cross instead of a throne. The Kingdom of God continually overturns the values of the world.

Where man celebrates abundance, God often celebrates simplicity. Where man pursues excess, God teaches contentment. Where man seeks prominence, God rewards humility.

GOD IS THE GOD OF ENOUGH

This does not mean God is against blessing His people. Far from it.

Our Father delights in providing for His children. Scripture repeatedly tells us He is generous, faithful, and abundantly able to supply every need according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).

The issue has never been prosperity; the issue has always been priority.

God blesses people. Mammon possesses people. One produces gratitude. The other produces greed. One creates generosity. The other creates endless craving.

There is a tremendous difference between enjoying God’s blessings and making blessings the object of your worship.

THE POWER OF SIMPLE THINGS

Throughout Scripture, God accomplishes extraordinary things through remarkably ordinary means:

A mustard seed (Matthew 13:31–32; Matthew 17:20)

A shepherd’s sling (1 Samuel 17:40, 49–50)

A widow’s handful of flour (1 Kings 17:12–16)

Five loaves and two fish (John 6:9–13)

A jar of oil (2 Kings 4:1–7)

A donkey’s jawbone (Judges 15:15–16)

Moses’ staff (Exodus 4:2–4; Exodus 14:16)

Clay and saliva (John 9:6–7)

Simple things became supernatural because they were surrendered to the Father. God rarely begins with what impresses people. He begins with what people overlook.

That is why Paul wrote, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

The miracle was never in the object. The miracle was in the God who used it.

WHAT SATAN TRIES TO HIDE

Paul describes one of Satan’s greatest strategies in his second letter to the Corinthians. “…the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not…” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Most people imagine this blindness as complete darkness. That is not the picture Paul paints.

The Greek word translated “blinded” literally means to cover with a thick veil, to obscure, to make unable to perceive.

The blindness is not always the absence of sight. It is distorted sight. Paul continues by explaining exactly what Satan is trying to keep hidden: “…lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ… should shine unto them.”

The enemy rarely succeeds by removing the truth. More often, he succeeds by distracting people from seeing it.

THE SCALES THAT FALL

One of the clearest biblical pictures of this appears in Acts 9. After Saul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, Scripture says: “And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales…” (Acts 9:18).

The word translated “scales” is the Greek word lepides. It literally refers to flakes or scales like those found on a fish or reptile.

Luke intentionally uses physical language to describe a spiritual reality. Saul’s problem was never that he couldn’t see—it was that something was covering his vision.

The scales represented a false way of seeing shaped by religious pride, tradition, fear, materialism, self-sufficiency, worldly ambition, and every distraction that kept him from seeing Christ.

When Acts says that something like scales fell from Paul’s eyes (Acts 9:18), it is using familiar imagery.

Just as the serpent—covered with scales—is associated throughout Scripture with deception, the scales that fell from Paul’s eyes provide a fitting picture of the deception that had blinded him to the truth about Jesus.

When they fell away, God wasn’t giving Paul new eyes; He was removing the deception that had kept him from seeing Christ for who He truly was.

That is exactly how deception works. Satan does not always convince people to reject the truth. More often, he simply blinds them to it, leaving behind old, serpent-like ways of thinking that continue to shape how they see everything.

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).

MOVING THE CLUTTER

Sometimes the greatest spiritual breakthrough is not receiving something new. It is removing what never belonged there.

We spend so much of our lives adding commitments, clothing, other possessions, extra responsibilities, noise, opinions, and distractions. Meanwhile, God keeps inviting us back to simplicity.

Jesus never said, “Follow your dreams.” He said, “Follow Me.” Those are not always the same destination.

THE GOSPEL WAS NEVER COMPLICATED

Religion often complicates what Jesus simplified. We create systems. God calls for surrender. We build platforms. God builds character. We pursue appearance. God transforms the heart.

Micah summarized God’s desire with remarkable simplicity: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good… to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8).

The Christian life is profound, but it is not complicated: Love God. Love people. Obey His Word. Walk humbly. Remain faithful. Everything else grows from there.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

God is not always asking you to add another commitment. Oftentimes, He is asking us to remove one.

Maybe the clutter is not in your closet. Maybe it is in your heart. Sometimes less really is more. Because when everything unnecessary is stripped away, we discover that Jesus has always been enough. When Jesus is enough, everything else finds its proper place. Keep it simple.