Abundant Life Episode 44
In this episode Saso and Ben discuss how Christians can be content with God, because God is enough.
Enough – That satisfies desire, or gives content; that may answer the purpose; that is adequate to the wants.
– Websters 1828
Key Verse
Philippians 4:19
This is such a powerful truth, God is more than enough, because if it is true, which it is, it means we that we should be trusting God to meet our every need. Yet, we have this nasty sin called unbelief that leads us down a dark path into further sin.
We are living in a time where many so called believers are bible illiterate. The reality is that many Christians donât know the truths and promises of God found in scripture and therefore they fall victim to unbelief. They simply donât believe God is enough.
Rather we are bombarded by ads that tell us we deserve more, we are plagued with instant gratifications that social media brings, we place our hopes in an elected official, we commit sin and feed our flesh because we simply donât believe that God is more than enough.
Itâs interesting that the scripture deals with this idea of unbelief and in fact we did an episode on the topic of unbelief, episode 17 to be specific. Unbelief is like a cancer for unbelievers as the scriptures tell us that Satan blinds them from seeing the light of the gospel.
2 Corinthians 4:4
This speaks of unbelievers, but Satan does this same thing to believers to keep them as if they were still in bondage. Itâs like the Andy Griffith show where Otis grabs the jail cell key hanging from the wall and lets himself out of jail. Christians have been forgiven and have been freed from the bondage of sin, yet we live like as if we were still in bondage.
Christian, do you deal with unbelief? Do you believe that God is more than enough? Or are you discontent? Do you lust for more? Are you intrigued by the world?
Throughout the Bible we see this theme of unbelief and it all started in the garden of eden. Adam and Eve chose to believe the lie of Satan that God wasnât enough, they wanted more, they wanted to be like God. And in single act of sin, Adam brought down the human race into sin.
Genesis 3:1-7
Lucifer was cast out of heaven with one third of the angels as he lusted to be greater than God.
Just like Adam and Eve, we are ruined by our own hearts as we lust for more because both discontentment and covetousness are both rooted in unbelief.
The apostle John warned us about this. He told us not to lust for the shiny things of this world, but instead trust and obey God.
1 John 2:15-17
The problem
Our problem is that we get our eyes off of God and we then put our focus on ourselves. We look at ourselves, our circumstances, our failures, our sin, our short comings. We compare ourselves to others. We are by nature selfish and we love to think about ourself and how we can live our best life now. Joel Olsteen’s book, Your Best Life Now is a lie, your best life is only for believers and will come when you are in glory with our savior Jesus.
We complain and grumble and we believe the lie that God is not enough or that God is not in control, or that God doesnât love me, or that God doesnât bless me.
Itâs this unbelief that drives us to a place of discontentment. Once we reach that point we start looking for fleshly things that will satisfy us. We then simply seek to feed our flesh and please ourselves which is always through some sort of sin. Not everyone sins the same, not everyone is tempted by the same sin, but we all have fleshly desires and our bent and bondage toward sin can only be broken by Jesus.
The problem with that is that the flesh canât be satisfied with things of the world. God is the only one that can satisfy our souls. He is the one that gives peace to our souls. He is the one that gives us joy. He gives us comfort. He gives us the power to say no to sin. He is the one that truly gives us contentment and satisfaction.
We see a clear example of this with the Apostle Paul. Paul was seeking relief from some sort of physical condition or ailment. He strongly desired to a perfectly healthy man, so much so that he prayed about it 3 times and God responded, but not in the way Paul had hoped for.
2 Corinthians 12:7-9
Essentially God told Paul, “Iâm enough. My grace is sufficient for you”. He did not give Paul relief, but instead told Paul to trust and depend on God because He is enough.
God doesnât always remove the temptation, or remove the trial, however, He will always give us just enough grace to get through it.
Romans 15:13
Jim Berg once said in a sermon, âIf you stick joy and peace in a blender and mix it up, you will get contentmentâ. God is the true source of joy and peace which means He is also the true source of contentment. Christian find satisfaction in God because God is enough, so be content in the Lord.
The Solution
How do we overcome our unbelief and lust for more? I came up with a couple solutions, contentment and gratitude.
Contentment
Christian contentment is a surrender to God whether he changes your circumstances or not because He always gives us what we need.
What about (flat tire, losing job, loss of loved one) God doesnât make mistakes. He is all wise and all knowing, and knows exactly what you need even if we think we donât need it.
Matthew 6:25-33
In Psalm 23 David proclaims that with God, we have no need of anything else
Psalm23:1
The apostle Paul learned what it meant to be content in any circumstance as he states in Philippians.
Philippians 4:12-13
The writer of Hebrews tells us to be content because God is more than enough.
Hebrews 13:5-6
Contentment is being settled in your heart in the face of any circumstance because you know that God is more than enough.
Gratitude and Thanksgiving
Our tendency is to focus on the things we donât have or the things we want. In reality God is the giver of good gifts and He loves us. He gives us exactly what we need and therefore we should have a heart of gratitude. We should be thankful to God for all his blessings, but primarily the gift of salvation through Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Itâs interesting because the verse doesnât say, to be thankful only in times of blessing, but in every circumstance. It’s not easy, but itâs exactly what we are called to do.
Paul and Silas were beaten, thrown in prison for simply casting a demon out of a slave girl. Sounds like it could be reason for frustration, maybe a little anger and discontentment. But Paul and Silas had a different mindset.
Acts 16:23
They gave thanks and glory to God. Iâm not certain how I would have handled those circumstances, but Paul and Silas certainly lived out 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 as they were thankful in their circumstance.
Conclusion
Psalm 73 talks about how Asaph lusted after the prosperity of the wicked. Have you, as a Christian ever wondered why the wicked prosper? Why do the wicked get away with lies and crimes? Why do the wicked seem to the âluckâ ones or the wealthy ones, or the ones in big houses, or the ones that donât ever seem to have problems. Why is it they seem to have it easy when we are over here obeying God, trusting God like a good little Christians and we get all these trials, circumstances and adversity in our lives?
Asaph was having this exact internal battle and he just couldnât understand how this could be.
Then about half way through the Psalm, Asaph seeks Godâs face and gets his resolve. Asaph understood that the wicked do not have hope, they do not have a bright eternal future, they will be judged one day and they will answer for their wickedness. But the most insightful thing was that Asaph understood that God was more than enough.
Psalm 73:25-26
God is more than enough. Christian, you can rest in the fact that God provides for your every need.
How about your Christian? Are you facing a trial right now? Maybe your dealing with a difficult circumstance. Maybe you are facing adversity. Where are you looking to for contentment? In things of the world? Where are you looking to for comfort? In some sin of pleasure?