God is Enough

 

This new year begins with joy and with the strong conviction that God is enough. He sent Jesus into my life more than fifty years ago. I’ve been in His bootcamp for much of that time, learning how to live as a soldier for the Lord and most of the time feeling like I’d never be able to measure up. However, He finally got it through my thick skull that I will never measure up — for He does not measure me but Christ who lives in me. 

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. (Psalm 62:5–7)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

My righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The new life He gave me is His life, not a better version of my old life. For that reason, He tells me “to be renewed in the spirit of my mind, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”  (Ephesians 4:23–24)

This is an amazing resting place, part of realizing that God alone is enough — enough to be all that I need to be, and enough for all my needs. He bestows the goodness required to live here as His child and to walk through the gates of heaven: 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1–4)

Again, and I can shout it: GOD IS ENOUGH!

In our church, this has become a motto using slightly different words. We say ONLY GOD when He does what only He can do. For example, every year in December, our church budget faces a shortage. This year it was overwhelmingly huge, yet yesterday morning our lead pastor announced that the giving that week not only met the budget but exceeded it. We said, “Only God” and “God is enough!”

The devotional reading for today says, “No soul can really be at rest until it has given up dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone.” It seems to me that many of us stubbornly put our expectation in other things and have to learn that nothing but disappointment will be the result, as if we have to touch the stove before we believe it is hot. How sad. The ideal is like Abraham who simply believed God and obeyed Him. 

Yesterday the Lord spoke to me again about keeping my focus on Him so that I’m not plagued by my attention-deficit tendencies. Stop all self-effort and simply trust Him to do what I cannot do. Again He tells me that He is enough.

PRAY: Jesus, what a delight to rest in You. May this new year be marked by a deeper faith in the reality that You are enough! I can safely and confidently rest in You for everything I need and to hear my cries and answer my prayers! You are enough!

Communion moments . . .

John Wallace advises that whenever my mind has nothing to fix itself on, drop my heart in prayer and use those moments to commune with God.

I don’t know what others do with those moments of nothing particular to think about. I know my imagination can wander, or I can worry, or allow negative thoughts. Wallace gives sound advice and those who follow it can have hearts that are “moving shrines” where God is continually worshiped and loved. Further, there is a sense of being at home with God and therefore never alone.

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. (Psalm 62:5–7)

Each year, I select a theme verse. The one that has made the biggest impact on me is Psalm 27:8, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’” In seeking the face of God, my heart reaches for Him and wins a lovely sense of His presence. Yes, I know He is always with me, yet these are occasions when I’m much more aware, much more in communion with Him.

The NT author of Hebrews gives similar advice as Wallace. He says to think about all that have been faithful witnesses to the glory of God and to be “looking to Jesus” . . .  

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1–3)

This focus has an effect, for human beings tend to become more like what we look at, what we focus on. While this fact can be distressing as young people imitate their idols, it is even humorous to see couples begin to look alike. In the early church, the people knew the disciples “had been with Jesus” no doubt because their faces reflected His.

Oh the wonder that Jesus lives in me. I “have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) because “God said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ and has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4:6–7)

Today is Sunday, corporate worship. As Christians come together to seek the face of God, how blessed of Him to give me these thoughts at the beginning of this day.

To Live is Christ — my Refuge

The idea of a refuge puts mental pictures in my head. I see a rabbit trembling inside a small hole after escaping from a predator. I see a child hiding in a closet from a bully sibling. I see a soldier deep inside a bunker, and a bruised and beaten woman in a shelter, and a family in a high place during a flood. The Bible says God is my rock, my salvation, my defense, and my refuge.

My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. (Psalm 62:5–7, ESV)

Most of my hiding happens after the fact. Something has happened and I run to the Lord, looking for His protection and comfort. I might feel like that rabbit who narrowly missed being another animal’s lunch, trembling because of a close call.

A few times, God has been my refuge right in the thick of things, before I run for cover. While I cannot make public one of those battles, I can say that at times He seems to appear before me. He becomes so real that my fears give way to awe.

These verses are important because they not only describe how God takes care of His children, but they give the one thing that I need to do when the pressures of life become intolerable. To experience God as my refuge, I must wait silently and not be moved.

Silence is one thing; lack of movement is different. The Hebrew word means slipping, falling, tottering, but the implication for me is that I cannot try to fix things or fight things by myself. That is, if God is going to save me, I need to let Him, not moving until He gives direction.

A story tells of a man who fell off the edge of a cliff. He managed to grab hold of a tree root on the way down. He began to yell, “Help. Help. Is there somebody up there? Please help me. Is there somebody up there?”

Finally a voice answered. “This is God. I can help you.” The man breathed a sigh of relief. Then the voice said, “I can help, but first you have to let go of that tree root.”

The man hesitated, then said, “Help, is there somebody else up there?”

Relying on God during the tough times means letting go of my own ‘control’ in a situation. Even in those troublesome spots when I feel like I have very little going for me, I don’t want to let go of the tree root. After years of experience, I’m still learning that my resources might seem okay, but His are far better. Besides delaying His deliverance, my own ideas usually get me in deeper trouble. Opening my mouth will do it, but moving in my own strength with my own ideas will do it too.

My soul must learn to wait silently. This means no decisions unless He speaks, no words unless He gives them, and no bright ideas unless they are from His Spirit. When my soul can stay still, my body can too. It is in that place that I experience God as my refuge and my hiding place.

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To Live is Christ — being silent

Ecclesiastes 3 says there is a time to keep silent and a time to speak. Knowing which is which can be challenging.

I usually speak when I should be quiet and say nothing when I should say something. Over the years, silence has been more difficult, particularly when someone does something against me. Then I use my mouth as a weapon of self-defense.

The Bible has much to say about that. One verse comes to mind, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19–20).

Although I’ve read that verse dozens of times and know it from memory, learning the truth of it has come more from experience than obedience. I’ve found out the hard way that God seldom works through my anger and even less through my angry outbursts.

Not all anger is sinful (Ephesians 4.26 says, “Be angry and do not sin . . . ”), yet the two often go together. Even at that, keeping silent while angry is bad for a person’s health. I must talk to God, and sometimes talk to the offending person. Apart from those options, I’m never supposed to go to bed angry.

Being silent about sin isn’t good either. David wrote about what the effect that silence about his sin had on him. He also described how speaking to God about his sin changed everything. 

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer . . .  I acknowledged my sin to You . . .  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin . . . You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. (Psalm 32:3–7)

Today’s devotional verses are about those changes too. They speak of hiding in God as my refuge and being delivered by Him. Here, instead of speaking up, the psalmist urges me to wait silently for God. This is a time for silence.

My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. (Psalm 62:5–7)

I cannot “wait silently for God alone” with sin in my heart. However, I have a huge problem being silent when I am angry. Having an expectation that He will act can only happen if I have genuinely forsaken all my ideas about taking matters into my own hands. If I am trying to solve my problems, or am thinking how I can defend myself, or plotting ways to get even with someone who has wronged me, there is no silent expectation. This is impossible because I have stopped trusting Him and am trusting myself. When that happens, I talk too much.

This week, I’ve had several occasions when I wanted to speak up, or answer back, or put down someone for sinning against me. At least once, God organized circumstances to prevent me from saying anything. At that, I’ve felt both humbled and protected. God was saving me from myself, protecting me from my foolishness, and helping me to obey this call to wait silently.

He is my defense. He says in Romans 12:19, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

I don’t know what He will do to repay what was done to me, but I know that He is my hiding place. He can, and does, and will take care of me. Knowing this makes waiting silently a much easier choice.