Chapter 17
Chapter 17
GOD IS ENOUGH
"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation isfrom him. He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock ofmy strength, and my refuge is in God"—
Psalm 62:5-7.
The last and greatest lesson that the soul has to learn is the fact that God, and God alone, is enough for all its needs. This is the lesson that all
His dealings with us are meant to teach. This is the crowning discovery of our whole Christian life.
God is enough!
We have been considering some aspects of the character and the ways of God, as revealed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have also looked at some of the mistakes which prevent us from appropriating the fullness that is ours in Him.
If God is indeed the God of all comfort; if He is our Shepherd; if He is truly our Father; if all the many aspects we have been studying of His charac-
ter and His ways are true, then we must conclude that He is, in Himself alone, enough for all our possible needs. Therefore, we may safely rest in Him, absolutely and forever.
Most Christians have sung these words in one of our most familiar hymns 'Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in Thee I find.'* But, I doubt whether all of us could honestly say that the words have expressed our true experience. Christ has not been all we want. We have wanted a great many things in addition to Him. We have wanted fervent feelings about Him or realizations of His presence with us or an interior revelation of His love. Or else we have demanded satisfactory doctrine or successful Christian work rather than Him alone. These things, we think, will give us a personal claim upon Him.
In reality, Christ Himself, Christ alone, without the addition of any of our experiences concerning
Him, has not been enough for us, in spite of all our singing. We do not even see how it is possible that He could be enough.
The psalmist said in those old days, **My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him" (Psalm 62:5). But now the Christian says, **My soul, wait thou upon my sound doctrines, for my expectation is from them;" or **My soul, wait thou on my good feelings, upon my righteous works, upon my fervent prayers, or upon
my earnest striving, for my expectation is from these."
Waiting On God To wait upon God seems for some to be one of the most unsafe things they can do. To have their expectation from Him alone seems like building on the sand. They reach out on every side for something to depend on. Not until everything else fails will they put their trust in God alone.
George MacDonald says, *'We look upon God as our last and feeblest resource. We only go to Him when we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven."
No soul can be at rest until it has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us. Feelings change with our changing circumstances, and doctrines and dogmas may be upset.
Christian work may come to nothing.
Prayers may seem to lose their fervency. Promises may seem to fail. Everything that we have believed in or depended upon may seem to be swept away, and only God is left.
We say sometimes, **If I could only find a promise to fit my case, I could then be at rest." But promises may be misunderstood or misapplied. At the moment we are leaning upon them, they may seem to fail us. But the Promiser, who is behind His promises and is infinitely more than His
promises, can never fail or change. The little child does not need to have any promises from his mother to make him content; he has his mother, and she is enough. His mother is better than a thousand promises.
In our highest ideal of love or friendship, promises do not enter the picture. One person may love to make promises, just as our Lord does, but the other does not need them. The personality of the friend is better than all their promises. And if every promise was wiped out of the Bible, we would still have God left, and God would be enough. Only God Himself, just as He is, without the addition of anything on our part, whether it be feelings, experiences, good works, sound doctrines, or any other thing either outward or inward; *'He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defence; I shall not be moved"
(Psalm 62:6).
I do not mean by this that we are not to have feelings, experiences, revelations, good works, or sound doctrines. We may have all of these, but they must be the result of our faith and never the cause. They can never be depended upon as being any indication of our spiritual condition. They are all things that change and are dependent upon the state of our health or the condition of our surroundings.
If we rely upon any of these things in the slightest degree, as the foundation of our confidence or our joy, we are sure to be defeated. We are to hold
ourselves absolutely independent of them all, resting only in the grand, magnificent fact that God is alive and that He is our Savior. Our spiritual life will prosper just as well and be just as triumphant without these personal experiences or personal doings as with them.
We will find God to be sufficient for all our needs, whether we are in a desert or in a fertile valley. We will say with the prophet, '^Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut oflFfrom the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stall; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
The soul is made for this and can never find rest with anything less. God is often obliged to deprive us of all joy in something else in order that He may force us to find our joy only in Him.
It is good to rejoice in His promises or to rejoice in the revelations He may have granted us or in the experiences we may have realized. But rejoicing in the Promiser alone, even without promises or experiences or revelations, is the crowning point of the Christian life. This is the only place where we can know the peace which passes all understanding.
God's Feeling For Us We often consider all of our own additions to the spiritual life as being the spiritual life itself. It is hard to detach ourselves from them. We think
that the Lord cannot mean anything to us unless we find in ourselves something to assure us of His love and His care. When we talk about finding our all in Him, we generally mean that we find it in our feelings or our views about Him. If we feel a glow of love toward Him, then we say heartily that He is enough; but when this glow fades, as sooner or later it is almost sure to do, then we no longer feel that we have found our all in Him. This shows that it is not the Lord who satisfies us, but our ow^n feelings about the Lord. We are not conscious of this, however. When our feelings fail, we think it is the Lord who has failed, and we are plunged into darkness.
Perhaps an illustration may help us to see it more clearly. Let us think of a man accused of a crime, standing before a judge. Which would be the concern of the moment for that man: his own feelings toward the judge or the judge's feelings toward him? Would he spend his time watching his own emotions? Or would he watch the judge and try to discover from his looks or his words whether or not to expect a favorable decision?
Of course, the man's own feelings are not of the slightest account in the matter. Only the opinions and feelings of the judge are worth a moment's thought. The man might have all the ''glows" and * 'experiences" conceivable, but these would mean absolutely nothing.
Everything depends upon the judge only. This is what we call all the a self-evident fact.
In the same way, we cannot help seeing that the only important thing in our relationship with the Lord is not our feelings toward Him, but His feelings toward us. Our sufficiency cannot possibly be of ourselves, but it must be of the one upon whom our fate depends.
**Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God" (2 Corinthians 3:5).
This is what I mean by God being enough. We find in Him, His existence and His character, all that we can possibly want for everything. God is.
This must be our answer to every question and every cry of need.
If there is any lack in the One who has saved us, nothing that we can do will begin to make up for it. If there is no lack in Him, then He, of Himself, and in Himself, is enough.
I believe that this is the secret of permanent deliverance from all the discomfort and unrest of every Christian life. Discomfort and unrest arise from strenuous but useless efforts to get up some satisfactory confidence within. For instance, you try to feel what you consider to be the proper emotions or the right amount of fervor or earnestness or at least a sufficient degree of interest in spiritual matters. Because none of these things are ever satisfactory (and never will be), it is impossible for your Christian life to be anything but uncomfortable.
But if we see that all salvation depends on the Lord alone, and if we learn that He is able and willing to do for us **exceeding abundantly above
all we can ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20), then peace and comfort cannot fail to reign supreme.
Everything depends upon whether the Lord, in and of Himself, is enough for our salvation, or whether other things must be added on our part to make
Him suflficient.
But There Is God There was a time in my Christian life when I was passing through a great deal of questioning and perplexity.
I felt that no Christian had ever had such peculiar difficulties as mine. There happened to be staying near me for a few weeks, a lady who was considered to be a deeply spiritual Christian. I summoned up my courage one afternoon and went to see her.
I poured out my troubles to her, expecting that she would take a deep interest in me and would do all she could to help me.
She listened patiently enough and did not interrupt me. But when I had finished my story and paused, expecting sympathy, she simply said, ''Yes, all you say may be very true, but then, in spite of it all, there is God."
I waited a few minutes for something more, but nothing came. My friend and teacher had the attitude of having said all that was necessary.
**But,"
I continued, ''surely you did not understand how very serious and perplexing my difficulties are."
'Oh yes, I did," replied my friend, "but then, as I tell you, there is God."
I could not induce her to make any other answer.
It seemed to me most disappointing and unsatisfactory.
I felt that my peculiar and difficult experiences could not be met by anything so simple as the statement,
**Yes, but there is God."
I knew God was there, of course, but I felt I needed something more than just God.
I came to the conclusion that my friend, for all her great reputation as a spiritual teacher, was at any rate not able to handle my problems.
My need was so great, however, that I did not give up with my first attempt.
I went to her again and again, always with the hope that she would sometime begin to understand the importance of my difficulties and would give me adequate help.
It was of no use.
I was never able to draw forth any other answer. Always to everything would come the simple reply, with an air of entirely dismissing the subject, **Yes, I know; but there is God."
At last, by power of her continual repetition, I became convinced that my friend truly believed that the mere fact of the existence of God, as the Creator and Redeemer of mankind, and of me as a member of the race, was an all-sufficient answer to every possible need.
She said it so often and seemed so sure that I began to wonder whether God might be enough, even for my overwhelming and peculiar need. From wondering I came gradually to believing that, since He is my Creator and Redeemer, He must be enough. A conviction burst upon me that He truly was enough. My eyes were
opened to the absolute and utter all-sufficiency of God.
My troubles disappeared, and I wondered how I could ever have been such an idiot as to be troubled by them, when all the while there was God.
The Almighty and All-seeing God, the God who had created me, was on my side and eager to care for me and help me.
I had found out that God was enough, and my soul was at rest.
Your Right To His Grace But someone may say, **A11 this is no doubt true, and I could easily believe it, if I could only be sure it applied to me. But I am so good for nothing and so full of sin, that I do not feel as if I had any claim to such riches of grace."
If you are good-for-nothing and full of 3in, you have all the more claim on the all-sufficiency of God. It is only the sinner who wants salvation that stands in the Savior's path. Jesus did not come to save the righteous, the fervent, the earnest workers, but simply and only to save sinners. Why then should we spend our time and energy in trying to create a claim to His grace which after all is no claim, but only a hindrance.
Perhaps until now, our eyes have been so exclusively fixed upon ourselves that all our interior questioning has been only regarding our own condition—Is my love for God warm enough? Am
I enough in earnest? Are my feelings toward Him what they should be? Do I have enough zeal? Do
feel my need as I should? And we have been miserable because we have never been able to answer these questions to our satisfaction.
Although we do not realize it, it has been a blessing that we never could answer them satisfactorily.
If we had, the self in us would have been exalted, and we would have been filled with pride.
If we want to see God, our questioning must not be about ourselves, but about Him. How does God feel toward me? Is His love for me warm enough?
Has He enough zeal? Does He feel my need deeply enough?
Is He sulSiciently in earnest? Although these questions may seem irreverent to some, they express the doubts and fears of a great many hearts. We all Icnow what would be the triumphant answers to such questions. No doubts could withstand their testimony. The soul that asks and answers them honestly will have the profound and absolute conviction that God is and must be enough.
Belonging To Christ ''All things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's"
(1 Corinthians 3:21-22).
It would be impossible for any statement to be more all-embracing.
All things are yours because you belong to Christ.
It is not because you are so good and so worthy, but simply
because you belong to Christ. All the things we need are part of our inheritance in Him, and they only await our claiming. Despite our needs and difficulties, there is in these *'all things" a supply exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think.
Because He is, all must go right for us. Because the mother is, all must go right, up to her ability, for her children. To the child there is, despite all that changes, the one unchangeable fact of the mother's existence. While the mother lives, the child must be cared for. While God lives, His children must be cared for as well. What else could He do, being what He is? Neglect, indifference, forgetfulness, and ignorance are all impossible to Him. He knows everything; He cares about everything; He can manage everything; and He loves us.
What more could we ask?
God's saints in all ages realized that God was enough for them. Job said, out of the depths of sorrows and trials, * Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15).
David could say in the moment of his greatest anguish, **Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me" (Psalm 23:4). He could say, '*God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the
mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
. .God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early" (Psalm 46: 13, 5).
Paul could say triumphantly, in the midst of many grievous trials, *Tor I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans
8:38-39).
Therefore, O doubting and sorrowful Christian, consider all that we have learned concerning the God of all comfort. Can you understand with Job and David and Paul and the saints of all ages, that nothing else is needed to quiet all your fears, but just this: God is.
After such a declaration as this, how can any of us dare to question or doubt God's love? Since He loves us. He cannot fail to help us. Do we not know by our own experience that love must pour itself out in blessing on the ones it loves? Can we not understand that God, who is love, who is even made out of love, simply cannot help blessing us.
We do not need to beg Him to bless us; He simply cannot help it.
Therefore God is enough! God is enough for time. God is enough for eternity. God is enough!
Only to sit and think of God,
Oh, what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name Earth has no higher bliss.
Living Confidently From the author of the bestseller A Christian's Secret Of A Happy Life comes this vital message of strength and encouragement in a life of faith. Too many Christians live in doubt, disappointment, and discouragement. They don't experience the assurance of a life nestled in God's loving care; they don't find comfort in His promise of a victorious life. Hannah Whitall Smith responds to this need of confidence by illustrating and explaining ways to:
* trust God with your life * win over defeat * shower love on fellow Christians * bring comfort to troubled friends * obtain the promises of the Lord * live in the fullness of Christ It is an uncomfortable world for Christians to be living in, but Mrs. Smith's timely anecdotes and vibrant language reveal how we can live confidently in God's love and receive the abundance of joy and blessing that awaits each of His children.
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