When you wake in the morning to a brand new day… is God enough? When your heart beats and your lungs fill up with air… is God enough? When you experience the countless blessings that have been given to you in this life… is God enough? When you come home after a satisfying day at work and hug your kids, kiss your spouse… is God enough?
If you woke tomorrow and the sun refused to shine… would God be enough? If you woke tomorrow and everything you had earned in this life was gone… would God be enough? If you woke tomorrow and every blessing that was granted to you no longer was there… would God be enough? If all you had left in this life when you woke tomorrow was the skin on your bones and the breath in your lungs… even then… would God be enough?
When I ask myself these questions they can be a little scary because they reveal to me just how many things I can let take the place of God in my life. My answer to most of those first few questions would be, “of course He is enough”. But when I get to that second set of questions I start to get a little antsy because if all of those things were gone from my life I would have no “life” left. “What would I do with all of my time?” “How could I be happy if everything was gone?” “Who would love me and who would I love?” It leaves me thinking that if I lost even half of the things in my life all at one time… could I handle it? Would I, in that moment, raise my eyes to the Creator of the Universe and say, “You are enough!” Or would I blame Him and turn my back on Him in resentment? If I woke tomorrow and everything that I counted as good in my life was gone and all that remained was my life and God’s Spirit inside of me, would I curse Him or drop to my knees and say, “though you slay me, yet will I praise you”?
One of the saddest things for me is it’s not until someone threatens to take something away from me that I begin to understand just how much importance or worth I have placed on it. Only at that point do I start to imagine the reality of living without that thing and the reaction that takes place in my heart is very telling of just how dependent I have become on that thing for my joy.
You see, the things we focus our attention and resources on are often worthwhile things that bring us joy and benefit the world around us, but it’s not until the threat of them being taken away that they reveal themselves as the IDOLS that they have become in our lives. As human beings, God created us with the desire and abilities to work, create, build, and imagine… all qualities that He himself bears. He gave us the gift of human relationships so that we could experience communion and learn how to love others as He loves us. But He never intended for these things, or the result of these things, to take a larger place in our hearts than He does. As our Heavenly Father, He loves to give good things to His children, but He never intended for those blessings to fill the place in our hearts that only He can fill.
The fact is, every human being has a God shaped hole in their heart that was created the day that Adam decided to remove God as the King of his heart when he was deceived into thinking that he could be made equal with God by eating the fruit from the tree of Knowledge. He was lead to believe that by removing God from that place he himself could become the King of his own heart. He thought that there was freedom in not having to rely on God to know what was good and evil. His heart was deceived into believing that being independent from God was better than the constant communion that they shared. But God didn’t design the human heart to be sustained by anything except Himself. He created us to be in direct communion with Him all of the time. We are His prized possession. It pleased Him to create us because His mark was on us and therefore we would bring Him glory in all that we did. But when Adam ate that fruit he broke that perfect communion with God and created a chasm so larger that nothing he or any other human could ever do would be able to bridge the gap to reinstate the rightful King of the human heart.
Ever since that day man and woman has tried to fill that void in their heart with anything and everything they could find to get back that feeling of completeness… doing anything to feel whole “again”. Relying on material things, money, fame, success, human beings and so much more. Hoping that they can sustain them, give them purpose, and bring them joy. But it hasn’t worked. The only solution for human beings to be made whole again is to invite God back into that God-shaped hole that was left when sin entered the world. And this can only be done by God pursuing them and bridging the gap caused by sin. He did this by sending His son, Jesus Christ, to the earth to be the perfect sacrifice that could bridge that gap and cover all of sin in its entirety. Jesus did what we couldn’t, He spanned the chasm of separation between God and the place where sin pushed us. Jesus makes it possible to get back to our King so that He can reign in our hearts and make us whole again. When we believe that Jesus is the son of God, that he was sent by God, and trust that His blood purifies us then we can come boldly before Him, who is Holy, and restore our hearts to their original design… complete and lacking nothing!
Unfortunately, one of the most difficult things that I have had to learn in my life is that even after you have that “come to Jesus moment” there isn’t a magic switch that gets flipped so that you never try to replace God again. See, that won’t happen until we are no longer in this world or this world is no longer in existence. The reason… this world still has a power that opposes God and everything that is good. This is the devil. The same one that was present in the garden when this whole situation started. And he has free rein in this world and thus he will do everything he can to try and get us to turn away from God and believe the lie that we can replace Him with something else. The fact is, this will be the case until God makes the world new and establishes His final reign over all things, crushing the power of evil and leaving it impotent for eternity. The battle for our hearts isn’t over yet, but there is hope in knowing that the final victory belongs to our Creator.
For those who believe in the work of Jesus on the cross and have accepted Him as their Savior, many are at risk of living like God is not the King of their heart. You are the ones that I want to talk to… I’m the one that I want to talk to! See for us, Christians, it is so dangerous and easy to fall into this mistake because we know that Jesus died for us and our sins are forgiven. Therefore, we don’t give much thought to slipping into habits and lifestyles that make us feel good without considering where we have or have not placed God in them. It’s all about the heart… what are the motives behind what I am doing? The way the human brain works we can’t just do something without a motive. Choice requires logic. Even if the choice is made at random there is still logic in that decision. Everything that we choose to do or not do has a motive and if that motive is to honor and glorify God as the King of our heart then He is exactly where He deserves to be. But if our true motive is self-focused, and it will only honor or glorify ourselves (or another object/human), then we have replaced God with an IDOL which is now acting as the king of our heart. With anything other than God in that place we are living outside of how God designed us to live and satan will do anything he can to keep you right there because God will get less glory from your life. God will be most glorified in your life when you find the greatest satisfaction in allowing Him to reign over your heart.
Live your life to fullest. Seek to thrive in all that you do. God created you to do just that, with Him at the helm. Ask yourself today… I ask myself today… is God enough?
all4above 