He's Enough...

My pastor always says, “God doesn’t want exclusivity, He wants priority.” That quote came to me right after I kept hearing Shana Wilson’s song “Give Me You” playing in my head. “Give me You. Everything else can wait. Give me You. I hope I’m not too late. It’s me oh Lord, down on my knees…crying out to You…give me You!” Sometimes we look for peace, healing, love, joy…everything to come from man. We want the doctor to prescribe the right medicine or suggest the right surgery but we don’t trust God for the total healing. We want our spouse to be all that we need and fill us up with love, but we don’t acknowledge God as being the definition of love. We want our job to give us a healthy financial life but we don’t believe God for all of our provision. Today, the message is simple. God is enough.

Everything comes down to our relationship with God. No matter what we face or what comes against us, if we have a true relationship with God that consists of love, obedience and trust, we can survive any test, even death.  1 John 5:4 says “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.” You see, God has every battle plan stored up for every war that you enter. He is all knowing, all powerful and ever present. The key is that we put our faith in Him. He doesn’t fail. He doesn’t lie. He doesn’t abandon.

I know that some of you have been dealing with sickness and death. It’s been crazy lately! So much has happened in 2013 and it’s we are only 2 months in but God is still God. One thing He promised is that He would never leave us or forsake us (Deut. 31:6) and we have to stand on that and believe it. If your husband never gets it, God will love you. If your sister is not healed on this side of glory, God will give you peace. If you never live in your dream home, God will still provide for you.  He is enough and He understands. Why do you think He gave us Jesus? He knew that we could not handle what the world and the enemy had to offer us. I love what Hebrews 4: 14 –16 says about Jesus as our High Priest and our intercessor.  The Message Bible translates it like this. “Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.”

I love that God can be all things to all people. We as humans can’t. I can’t go with both of my children at the same time and protect them during the day, but God can. We have to get to a place in our relationship with God where we trust Him with all that we have. We have to know that if we have Him, we have enough. Do you remember when Paul was dealing with the thorn in his flesh and he asked God 3 times to take it away? The Lord answered in a way that I think sums everything up. He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12: 9 NKJV) You don’t have to figure it out. You don’t have to be all for everyone or fix everything. You can rest on the fact that God’s grace is sufficient and that He grows ever stronger in your weakness. He is enough to sustain you through anything that you are facing.

So here’s the challenge today: lay it down! So tired, you can barely function? Lay it down! So frustrated that you can’t enjoy your everyday life? Lay it down! So bitter that your past experiences have spilled over into your present? Lay it DOWN!  God is able and HE IS ENOUGH.