IS THE GRACE OF GOD REALLY SUFFICIENT, FOR YOU???
I suppose the more accurate question is how sufficient is God's grace, for you? How long does it last--does it have a point at which it is no longer enough?
I mean what do you do when God doesn't simply say, "Wait" or "Not yet", but "No!"? Or, like Paul you beseech Him repeatedly hoping for a change of heart, and He says without skipping a beat, "My grace is sufficient for you" just like He said to Paul? What do you do, how do you respond? I never hear anyone preach that message--or even talk about the subject. It's as if it is taboo. It's wonderful to talk about God responding to us instantly as the check comes in the mail as soon as we needed it, or even how we continued in worship and praise, persevering through hard times, and finally at the appointed time (when it looked like all hope was gone) God delivered us and brought us over that mountain (usually a financial one). However, we don't talk about the praise and worship that happens (or should happen) when God says, "No"; does anyone even teach how to behave in the face of "No"? I had to learn that lesson on my own--and it wasn't easy. I hit harder than brick walls more times than I can count, because I refused to accept that, "No".
Why aren't we satisfied with the gift of God, Himself?
I've heard it sung, "If heaven never was promised to me,
Neither God's promise to live eternally. (Uhhh...I NEED Heaven to make THIS worthwhile!)
It's been worth just having the Lord in my life. (Huhhh...Really??? Get out of here!!!)
Living in a world of darkness,
You came along and brought me the light...." (Andrae' Crouch)
Now mind you, it's a beautiful song, but it kind of isn't true--and it isn't scripturally accurate, either (see 1 Corinthians 5:19). But, bottom line we aren't satisfied with delighting ourselves in the Lord. We delight in so many things, and have so many earthly distractions--and we seek God for more of them. We have so much nerve, really we do. So presumptuous....
There's another song, "Praise Him, In Advance". (I like that one, too). It's not that hard to praise God, in advance--when you know it's coming, but what happens to your praise and your faith when it is not going to happen? I know some will say that is faithless, but it is actually faith-filled. It doesn't take a whole lot of faith to get what you want, but it takes monumental faith to walk with with God when He says, "No", and you are convinced that you need that thing to survive. Yet, God says, I AM your Sustainer, I AM your Keeper, trust Me and live; ask Paul what kind of faith that takes--and he had to evangelize the known world with that thorn; without pouting, grumbling or complaining. That's real faith! Great faith. It's the kind of faith that we need--it's mature faith, perfected faith, that doesn't need to have its way, everything going its way or have everything that it wants to be content. How sufficient is His grace, for you, really?
Can you really be satisfied with the delight of the Lord? Do the things of God satisfy your soul or do you long for earthly, temporal things that are soon corrupted, or in time forgotten, cast aside or replaced for bigger and better. Think of technology and its fast pace. Today, we want the latest IPad and Notebook, but in a few months (not years), we will want to replace the much craved one that we desire now. The thing about desiring God is this: He doesn't change, but your desire for Him gets greater and greater, the more you seek Him. The more you long for Him, the more you want Him--you will never get bored with God, or need a newer, better model. Psalm 37:4 says, "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires." Most of us, read this as: if I love God and serve Him, I can ask for whatever I want and He will give it to me--and in a sense, that's correct; but our interpretation assumes that the desires are earthly, tangible things. That's where we err. What this verse actually means is this: If I delight or desire God solely (or more than anything), He will give me what I desire--Him. You see, when we come to the place that our hearts are focused heavenward, it is then safe for God to write us the proverbial blank check, because then we can be trusted to want/desire the right "Thing".
I mean what do you do when God doesn't simply say, "Wait" or "Not yet", but "No!"? Or, like Paul you beseech Him repeatedly hoping for a change of heart, and He says without skipping a beat, "My grace is sufficient for you" just like He said to Paul? What do you do, how do you respond? I never hear anyone preach that message--or even talk about the subject. It's as if it is taboo. It's wonderful to talk about God responding to us instantly as the check comes in the mail as soon as we needed it, or even how we continued in worship and praise, persevering through hard times, and finally at the appointed time (when it looked like all hope was gone) God delivered us and brought us over that mountain (usually a financial one). However, we don't talk about the praise and worship that happens (or should happen) when God says, "No"; does anyone even teach how to behave in the face of "No"? I had to learn that lesson on my own--and it wasn't easy. I hit harder than brick walls more times than I can count, because I refused to accept that, "No".
Why aren't we satisfied with the gift of God, Himself?
I've heard it sung, "If heaven never was promised to me,
Neither God's promise to live eternally. (Uhhh...I NEED Heaven to make THIS worthwhile!)
It's been worth just having the Lord in my life. (Huhhh...Really??? Get out of here!!!)
Living in a world of darkness,
You came along and brought me the light...." (Andrae' Crouch)
Now mind you, it's a beautiful song, but it kind of isn't true--and it isn't scripturally accurate, either (see 1 Corinthians 5:19). But, bottom line we aren't satisfied with delighting ourselves in the Lord. We delight in so many things, and have so many earthly distractions--and we seek God for more of them. We have so much nerve, really we do. So presumptuous....
There's another song, "Praise Him, In Advance". (I like that one, too). It's not that hard to praise God, in advance--when you know it's coming, but what happens to your praise and your faith when it is not going to happen? I know some will say that is faithless, but it is actually faith-filled. It doesn't take a whole lot of faith to get what you want, but it takes monumental faith to walk with with God when He says, "No", and you are convinced that you need that thing to survive. Yet, God says, I AM your Sustainer, I AM your Keeper, trust Me and live; ask Paul what kind of faith that takes--and he had to evangelize the known world with that thorn; without pouting, grumbling or complaining. That's real faith! Great faith. It's the kind of faith that we need--it's mature faith, perfected faith, that doesn't need to have its way, everything going its way or have everything that it wants to be content. How sufficient is His grace, for you, really?
Can you really be satisfied with the delight of the Lord? Do the things of God satisfy your soul or do you long for earthly, temporal things that are soon corrupted, or in time forgotten, cast aside or replaced for bigger and better. Think of technology and its fast pace. Today, we want the latest IPad and Notebook, but in a few months (not years), we will want to replace the much craved one that we desire now. The thing about desiring God is this: He doesn't change, but your desire for Him gets greater and greater, the more you seek Him. The more you long for Him, the more you want Him--you will never get bored with God, or need a newer, better model. Psalm 37:4 says, "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires." Most of us, read this as: if I love God and serve Him, I can ask for whatever I want and He will give it to me--and in a sense, that's correct; but our interpretation assumes that the desires are earthly, tangible things. That's where we err. What this verse actually means is this: If I delight or desire God solely (or more than anything), He will give me what I desire--Him. You see, when we come to the place that our hearts are focused heavenward, it is then safe for God to write us the proverbial blank check, because then we can be trusted to want/desire the right "Thing".
Over and over, I find myself saying, God is not in the business of giving us whatever we want in terms of earthly things--He is not our Fairy Godfather, or a Genie-in-a-bottle. That is a fallacy that so greatly diminishes the sovereignty of God, to make Him our Servant rather than our Master. It is not scriptural--unless you twist scripture and take it far out of context. Jesus told us: "So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you." (Matthew 6:31-33). We read that 33rd verse as if "these things" refers to everything we desire, when in fact, it simply refers back to what Jesus said we must not worry about--the things we need--food, water, and clothing. Those are what the Bible calls needs--we have added a lot more to the list, but in fact, anything more is a desire. Jesus said also, in Luke 12, "And
He said to them, Guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness
(the immoderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more); for
a man’s life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance or that which is over and above his needs....But God said to him, You fool! This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with the one who continues to lay up and hoard possessions for himself and is not rich [in his relation] to God [this is how he fares]." These verses among others, make it clear what Jesus' message was about how we are to behave in relation to money, possessions, needs and desires--and our relationship with Him. The apostles gave us counsel, too. ("Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever." (1 John 2:15-17); "What leads to strife (discord and feuds) and
how do conflicts (quarrels and fightings) originate among you? Do they
not arise from your sensual desires that are ever warring in your bodily
members? You are jealous and
covet [what others have] and your desires go unfulfilled; [so] you
become murderers. [To hate is to murder as far as your hearts are
concerned.] You burn with envy and anger and are not able to
obtain [the gratification, the contentment, and the happiness that you
seek], so you fight and war. You do not have, because you do not ask. [Or]
you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with
wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you
get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures. You [are like] unfaithful wives [having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God]!" (James 4:1-4a)
So, when God says "No", will you strive, and fight and push and do everything you can to make that thing happen and then testify that God did it, because we often do just that. How many times have we heard testimonies of those who have gotten houses and cars that they couldn't afford--but supposedly God did it, but they lost them later to foreclosure or repossession? God does not backpedal on His gifts and promises. If He was the Giver, it would be retained. Greed drives us to do foolish things and we attribute our foolishness to God--and He is not the Author of many things we attribute to Him. How grieved must He be, watching His children who can't be satisfied with His provision of their needs and even more than those? He promised to meet our needs, but God gives us much more than what we need, and we are still not satisfied; we still want more and more corruptible things. These "things" are distractions, too. The more "things" we have, the less time we have for God. We focus on acquiring them, and then we focus on enjoying them. Of course, technology enables us to study the Word with ease, and share it (obviously!), but how much of our attention is really devoted to the things of God in contrast to our secular enjoyment of those "things".
Those times when God says "No" or "My grace is sufficient" even though you beg and plead, will you be able and willing to wholeheartedly cry out like the prophet Habakkuk, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation!
The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!" Can you have "high places" in your life and not allow them to triumph over you, but walk on them and let them build spiritual character in you? I hope so.
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