Is God Really Enough?
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When do we have enough? Enough money? Enough food? Enough clothes? Enough intelligence? When are we satisfied and truly content? The pursuit of more is rife in the hearts of many.
Let’s make it sound a little more spiritual. Have we read our Bible enough this week? Do we pray enough? Have we given enough? Are we sharing our faith enough? What is “enough” in all of these situations? The answers to the above seem to leave us longing for more or feeling guilty. The deeper question that needs to be asked is: is God really enough? Do we believe that God is sufficient, and in Him, we can have an abundant life?
Everything we need can be found in God. It seems like a cliché, but the truth of this statement is life-giving, thirst-quenching, and soul-satisfying. All of the longings of the heart can be brought to God and found in Him. It is not when things are going seemingly well in life that we trust that God is with us. It is often when all of those things we trust to save or satisfy us are taken away. That is when we get to the heart of what really matters.
In countries where the persecution of Christians is severe, believers are living a life that proclaims “Christ is enough.” They risk their lives because they truly trust in Jesus. When everything else is taken from them, they know their God is sufficient. Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom said, “You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.”
Our Ultimate Need Is Jesus
Jesus came across many people who were in need in His ministry. Many would be sick and were looking to Him for healing. Others would be longing for answers to deeper questions, such as how they can inherit eternal life and what it means to love their neighbor. His disciples would come to Him with many questions, even questioning if He cared if they were to drown in a storm (Mark 4:38). In each case, Jesus would be their ultimate need.
1. The Blind Beggar
When Jesus passed by a blind beggar called Bartimaeus, the man cried out twice, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38-40). He knew that Jesus could heal and was persistent in his cries. He came to Jesus for healing and Jesus stopped and got His followers to call Bartimaeus to Him. He would have already known all about this man and why he was calling out. Yet, Jesus asked Bartimaeus what he wanted Him to do, inviting him to express his need and trust in Jesus. Bartimaeus said, “Lord, let me recover my sight” (Luke 18:41).
Bartimaeus knew that Jesus was Lord and the Son of David, affirming his belief that Jesus was the Messiah. He had faith to believe that Jesus could give him this desire and meet this physical need. Jesus said “your faith has healed you.” What are we to make of this?
Living in this world for any amount of time, we know that healing does not always happen in the way we imagine. Jesus beckons us to Himself in the same way. He invites us to ask what we need. Ultimately, healing will come for the believer, whether in this life or in eternity. But, we must persistently come to Jesus, trusting Him by faith that He has saved us and will refine and restore us, for our good and His glory.
2. The Rich Young Ruler
For the man who wondered what good deed he would need to do to have eternal life, Jesus addressed his heart by saying he needed to sell his possessions and give his wealth to the poor (Luke 18:22). The man went away sad because he had a lot of money and his heart was with his wealth.
To follow Jesus means placing our trust in Him. Misplaced trust will leave us sad and longing. Jesus spoke to the heart of the man. When Jesus reveals those places in our hearts where we trust created things rather than the Creator, it can be painful. Yet, with God’s help and our willingness to lay it down, we will see that our greatest treasure and need is Jesus. There is always a cost to following Christ, but it is worth it.
3. The Expert in the Law of God
Another man who was asking about eternal life questioned Jesus further on the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. This man was an expert in the law of God and his motive was to test Jesus (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus appealed to the man by asking him a question about the law and how he interprets it. The man answered correctly and Jesus told him to do what it says. Yet, the man sought to justify himself by probing deeper into who his neighbor really is.
As Jesus told him the parable of the Good Samaritan, the man saw that he was to show mercy even to those who were his enemies. Jesus once again revealed the ultimate need of the expert of the law. Loving all people and showing mercy, even to our enemies, is another cost. We cannot keep the law by our good deeds; we need Jesus, our Savior, who fulfilled the law perfectly.
4. The Weak-Faith Followers
For the disciples in the storm-tossed boat, it was their lack of faith in who Jesus was. The storm that came upon their boat made them question the character of Jesus (Mark 4:37-38). Did He care that they could drown? Was He compassionate? They witnessed miracles and heard His teaching. They followed Him and watched His life closely. Yet when the storm came, there was a battle in their heart and mind: is God enough in this storm?
When they woke Jesus, He calmed the wind and waves. But when all was calm, He asked them why they were afraid and did they still have no faith. Can we trust that Jesus is enough by placing our faith and trust in Him, even in the storms of life?
Learning from Jesus: His blood Was and Is Enough
Jesus said not to worry about food, drink, or clothes and not to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34). He reminds us that our heavenly Father knows our needs. The most important thing we are to do is “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). We may seek after good things, but if we pursue them above God, we cannot serve them both (Luke 16:13). We can go to God first with what is fighting for our heart’s affection or what is consuming our mind with anxiety and fear. He is faithful and longs to hear from us.
When speaking to His disciples, He declared “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). Just like we need food to sustain the body, we need Jesus to sustain our very life. He satisfies the deepest longings of our heart.
Jesus said, “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). He was speaking to a Samaritan woman who was a social outcast: despised by the Jews because of her race, collecting water by herself in the heat of the day, and having had multiple husbands. Yet Jesus met her at the well, saw her for who she was, and invited her to come to Him, giving her all she would ever need.
Most importantly, the blood of Jesus was enough to save us from alienation from God. His sacrifice on the cross was enough to defeat the power of sin and death. His blood is enough today to cleanse us of our sin and present us as faultless before the throne (Jude 1:24). We cannot do more in our efforts to get right with God. We can try harder, but it is futile. We need to surrender to the truth that Christ is enough.
Trusting That Christ Is Enough, Always and to the Uttermost
Singing songs of surrender to God when we hold on so tightly to those things we trust in seems pointless, doesn’t it? God knows our heart and He wants us to be living sacrifices to Him. Throughout His Word, He consistently and constantly demonstrates that He is faithful and trustworthy. Jesus cared about meeting the physical needs of people and paid attention to the details of their lives. But ultimately, there is a need much greater and that is coming to Jesus Himself. In all circumstances, we are to be open-handed, listening to Him, and entrusting our lives into His care.
Pray that God will help you to surrender. Repent of placing your hope in things other than God that will never be enough. Remember that there is a continual battle on this earth where many things will appear attractive, and promise us the earth. Yet that is all they can promise. We will be left bitterly short-changed if we trust them.
Let Jesus guard your heart and satisfy your hunger and thirst. Believe that He is at work in ways that we cannot fully comprehend. Above all, look to His Word for wisdom and truth about who God is and who we are in relation to Him. As Elisabeth Elliot said, “We can't really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.”
“Trust and obey, for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
John H. Sammis (1887)
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/metamorworks
