God is always enough

GOD IS ALWAYS ENOUGH

Christianity is a life of tremendous abiding joy, sometimes painful joy but nonetheless always abiding joy

At the moment I have a bad back that is limiting me moving around freely. When I try to carry on as normal I am in pain from sciatica, which increases the more, I try and I have to lie down.

12 years ago I went through the same and it lasted about a year. During that time I was at home a lot. In fact I spent more time lying on the carpet than anywhere else. It was a humbling time. With 3 teenagers and a busy life I wanted to keep going but I couldn’t.  However in God it was a very significant time as I was forced to lie down and be still. I read scripture, I listened to preaching, I worshipped and encountered a fresh intimacy with Jesus. So much so, that in once sense I didn’t want it to end. Eventually after treatment, prayer and a lot of waiting on God I was healed. Time alone with Him seemed more precious than anything else.

So what about this time?

I have questions for God.

Why now?

I have just finished an exciting and equipping year and am ready to GO!

Do I believe that you teach us things through suffering when Jesus never told anyone that when they came to him to be healed?

Why when so many have prayed for my back have I not yet been healed?

Is there unconfessed sin in my life?

I have been waiting on God for his answer to me but this I know…

He is good

He is with me all the time

He hears my cry

He has a plan that will not be interrupted by anything that he has not ordained.

Yesterday God began to speak to me about steps of faith through a sermon preached at my daughter’s church. Taken from the story of Elijah and the widow in 1 Kings 17.

God fed Elijah through the ravens and the brook and Elijah knew to go to God and to trust him to provide for him. Elijah knew the faithfulness of God and God even used a poor widow to provide for him. The widow however, when she ran out, despaired of life itself and didn’t run to God. Yet God didn’t abandon her because of her unbelief. He showed her his faithfulness through leading her to take steps of faith. Even whilst she took those steps of faith things got worse. Her son fell ill and nearly died. The preacher pointed out that our response in a difficult circumstance is often to initially respond with faith and feel the blessing of God but then when there are unexpected twists and turns we can respond in a variety of ways. First, advising God of a solution which is thinking based on a dependence on our own resources, followed by a more anxious cry for immediate deliverance followed by our taking our eyes off God and falling into despair believing lies about ourselves and about God and his nature to come through for us.

Hebrews 11:6 says that ‘Without faith it’s impossible to please God’

If an action requires faith it probably means there is something important missing, in this case it was food. In my case it is healing.

I have been challenged! What is my response? Is it faith in His goodness and faithfulness no matter what?

I was reading 1 Peter 1 this morning.

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I am standing with several dear friends who are also distressed by trials right now and it is hard, they are battle weary which is why it is important that they know there are others standing with them. I know that nothing that happens to us is wasted and God is always in control and His ways are perfect.

Peter says we are joyful primarily because of our hope in our great future

In this you greatly rejoice…you are born again to a living hope!

That does not perish or fade that is waiting for you in heaven. He is keeping both an inheritance for us and also keeping us for that inheritance!

So no matter what we face we have a hope of a great future

Verses 6-7 says 'if necessary' suggesting that the distresses themselves may have a part to play in our great hope...our inheritance

So does God have a design to increase our joy in our future inheritance through the distresses we go through now?

Peter says in verse 6, "If necessary, you have been distressed by various trials," meaning, "If God deems it necessary."

Then there are those two little words ‘so that’ meaning there is a purpose.

If Peter is teaching that the sovereign will of God governs all the distresses that happen to us and, therefore the design in them is not ultimately the design of evil men or the design of Satan but is a design of God then I can presume that they are designed for my good

So that the proof of our faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

I know God does not delight in pain for pain sake, I know that he could intervene because nothing is impossible to him and to those who believe. So when he doesn’t intervene either immediately or for some time what am I to think? Does he have higher designs?

As I entrust myself to a faithful creator I know that my life is like a canvas that represents my redemptive story in his greater redemptive plan.

In God’s design my distresses are brief and passing. Our distresses may last a little or a long time but when compared to eternity as Peter writes in verse 6 they are just ‘for a little while’

James also writes in James 4:14: "You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (Not sure I like being called just a vapor!!) But compared to the length and greatness of the future God has planned for us, all the distresses of this life are very little in deed

So how should I respond in my distress?

Not in stoicism… yet content in all circumstances

Pressing into the God who heals all my diseases but who has not yet healed me of mine

Allowing God the opportunity to stretch my faith and increase my knowledge of Him.

The Bible speaks continually about us knowing Him. Recently I was thinking about friendship and about close friendships. I was thinking that when you know someone really, really well, you know how they tick, you know how they feel, their values and beliefs and you know what pleases them. You don’t have to question them so much. You trust them because you know them well. You feel relaxed with them.

You question people when you don’t know them that well. It takes time to get to know someone well and to build history with them. Such friendships are precious and remain even when apart from another, even across continents and years.

It’s the same with God as we get to know him more intimately we can rest in who he is and not doubt his goodness whatever is going on. He is always ENOUGH… I think if anything, that is maybe what God is teaching me…to be continued.