Skip to main content

Is God Enough?

           
            If you were to ask people who know me, they would say: Debi says God is enough!  Trusting in God is the foundation of my life.
            Something you may not know about me is that I have a deep need to be right.  Recently I’ve been faced with a problem that in my mind has a right answer.  When I am right, I assume God will back me up!  Not in this case.  Some very godly people asked me to go along with what wasn’t right in my mind.  They didn’t ask me to do something wrong they just asked me to put love before justice, and my right solution was to put justice before love.  (Um-that should have been the first clue that I wasn’t as right as I thought I was!)
            Is God enough?  I think I’m enough.  I was fully committed to my plan.  I didn’t want to do it another way.  I understood that the other way wasn’t a wrong way.  I could grasp the rationale for doing it that way.  It was definitely the more humble and loving way.  The problem was—it wasn’t my way.
            God in His great love and compassion for me did not let me go my own way without challenging me over and over.  The Holy Spirit kept reminding me that godly people were asking me to respond in another way.
            Why am I so committed to my own way?  I believe that I am enough.  I believe that I could convince others that I am enough and that my wisdom is enough.  I was convinced that I could straighten out this situation.
            Either I believe God is enough or I believe I am enough.  God is enough, but  it doesn’t look like He is enough when you focus on what is seen. 
            In John 6:5-9 Jesus has a conversation with His disciples.
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite! Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?
            It is rarely obvious when God is enough.  Like Philip, I say to God, what you are asking me to do is irrational.  I need to be like Andrew and see what I do have.  What I can see is that godly people are asking me to do something they feel led by God to direct.  I need to take what I see and give it to Jesus so He can take it and break it then pray over it and ask God to be enough for every person involved.
            Yes, God is enough.  Why do I forget?
Copyright © 2015.  Deborah R Newman teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.


Check out Tea Time for Your Soul Daily Devotions available now on Kindle:

Soul Transformation through Advent: Devotions for Advent through Epiphany

Stepping UP: A 90 Day 12-Step Devotional


by Dr. Deborah Newman

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are cr...
2 comments
Read more

The Purpose of Suffering

    It’s not that I haven’t faced my own degree of personal suffering. It isn’t that I am numb to the vast array of suffering that is taking place all over the world at this very moment in time. It is that I remain confident in the grandeur of God’s goodness even as the reality of the suffering in this world is too much for my heart to bear. I believe that no degree of suffering is ignored by the loving God who created a universe in which suffering was never intended to exist. If I could fully take all the suffering of this world, my heart and soul would never survive. The weight of suffering is too heavy for me. Yet, I know He knows every degree of suffering taking place even in this moment. God alone has the capacity to face the reality of the suffering of His entire creation. Beyond that, I know He is working to end the suffering of this world. So then, you may ask , Why ? My only answer is to tell you to look to God. See His response to suffering. He has tak...
Post a Comment
Read more

See the Winter

            Winter is fully here.   My winter coat, gloves, scarves and boots stand ready in the front of my closet.   It took me a little while of going through the motions of living in winter before I really stopped to see it.   Seeing winter is about seeing the value of a hard freeze.   It’s about consenting to God and recognizing His wisdom in giving us the seasons—even seasons that appear harsh.             I first learned the value of seeing winter during a time when I was freezing spiritually.   My heart and soul was numb from the harsh realities I faced, and I found myself as barren as a fruit tree in the middle of winter.   It was the hardest season of my life.   God didn’t send spring in answer to my desperate cries; rather He told me to look around at winter and to really see it.         ...
2 comments
Read more