Is He Enough?

In his sermon a few weeks ago, our Pastor asked the question, "Is Jesus enough?" If the only thing that God offered us was the knowledge of the Savior, would that be enough for us to be willing to give everything that we have to obtain it? Would we be willing to give up all the other blessings that we currently enjoy to just have Jesus? Would we be willing to sell our houses and go into the unknown just to have Him in His fullness or is He just something we have added to our lives to enhance them? Is He more than fire insurance? Would He be enough? That is a compelling question. Corrie Ten Boom said that "You can never learn that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have." She certainly knew this truth in her life's deepest experience. What is my experience? Have I ever really been to the place where Christ was all I had? Have I found Christ to be all that I need in the darkest, deepest valleys of life? More importantly, do the mountaintop blessings and the comforts and acquisitions of life that He has so graciously provided for me pale in comparison to knowing Him? If it was all taken away, would I find that He is all that I want? Am I in love with the Blesser or the blessings? In 1999, after a devastating car accident that left two of my 4 children brain injured, I went to an appointment at the school district office to review test results for my daughter who was starting kindergarten just 3 months after being released from the hospital. They were devastating. My formerly bright, engaging, athletic, witty 5-year-old was barely functioning on the level of a two-year-old. To add to my distress, they informed me that they didn’t know much about working with brain injuries so they were sending a counselor to take a class so that they could better meet her needs. No brain injury is the same. Even the doctors can’t give you any definitive promises concerning them. Their efforts did little to reassure me. As I left the meeting, I was distraught so I headed for my church building and sat down at the piano and began to play and worship because at that moment, Jesus was the only one that could help me and the only one that could help my daughter. As I worshipped, the Spirit of God began to minister to my heart and this chorus flowed out of me. I love to worship You
Worship at Your feet, Lord
Bow down to Your Name
And tell You that I love You
If the seas would turn to dust
And all time would pass away
I’d still be at Your feet
Worshipping You Lord Even though I wrote that chorus 20 years ago, it still ministers to me and in more recent times, it has been more of a declaration at times as I have had to let go of things that have long been blessings in my life, as I find my new normal. It has been my battle cry when I’ve felt like I just can’t go one more step. It’s been a song of resolution when hope seems far away from my situation, when it seems God’s ear is deaf to my pleas and my emotions are trying to convince me that He doesn’t care. Deep down, I know that He is enough. He is more than enough. He truly is all that I need. In Habakkuk 3, the prophet knows that tragedy is coming to Judah because they have forgotten God. He was no longer enough for them. They were distracted by other things and leaning on their own strength and not honoring the Word of God. And so God was raising up the Chaldean army to come and carry them away captive. After hearing the vision, as scripture says, Habakkuk’s response was this: Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive tree should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, YET I WILL EXULT IN THE LORD, I WILL REJOICE IN THE GOD OF MY SALVATION. THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH AND HE HAS MADE MY FEET LIKE HINDS’ FEET, AND MAKES ME WALK ON MY HIGH PLACES. For Habakkuk, for Corrie Ten Boom, for Elizabeth Elliot, for Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail, for the Apostle Peter, for Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for all those who have been imprisoned and martyred for Christ, HE IS ENOUGH. HE IS ALL THEY NEED. HE IS EVERYTHING. And the secret is found in the last part of verse 19. “The Lord is my strength, and HE HAS MADE my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.” So when I find myself feeling unsettled, discontent, weak, wallowing in self-pity, and pondering on doubts in my mind, it is then I know that I must rely on His strength to pull me out of where I am and up to the place of being seated in heavenly places with Him because from there I can see more clearly the whole picture. It's there that I know that Jesus is all that matters and everything that I need is found in what only He can provide. He is supreme and the center of everything. It’s then I know that the only important thing I have to do with my life is to be at His feet, worshipping and allowing His life to flow to me and then through me to a world that needs to know that He is enough.