The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Enough"
"Our hearts can - and must - make the choice to believe that if we found ourselves having lost all, but if the Lord Jesus remained, we would have lost nothing that fulfills the very essence of who we are."
Is He enough? If we lost everything but the Lord Jesus Christ, would He be enough to fill and fulfill our hearts?
The pages of Scripture, the witness of the Holy Spirit, the experiences and testimonies of saints through the ages, the trillions of answered prayers, and the living presence of God in this moment unite to tell us that He would be enough, and far more.
"I am with you always… I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5).
Of course, the norm of our lives involves both the Provider and His provisions. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). God made us for Himself, and for the gifts He gives. A complete experience of Him therefore involves His presence within our hearts, and His provisions for the entirety of our being. The next breath of air we breathe, for example, comes to us from God. He is not Himself that breath, which exists as moving molecules made by the Lord, but separate from Him. However, He does come with the gift, as the Apostle Paul affirmed, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). We therefore rightly rejoice in both the Giver and His gifts, seeking to emphasize the Former even as we appreciate the latter. "We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done" (Psalm 78:4).
What if, however, we found ourselves having lost all? Would we find the Lord Jesus to be our all at the sad point of such extremity? Would He be for us the peace of our hearts when no other other part of us could know the usual gifts of life? Before answering this question, let us still ourselves and be honest regarding the great challenge it is to affirm the truth that Christ is enough to keep our hearts when all else has been lost. "The flesh lusteth against the spirit" (Galatians 5:17). Only deeply within our spirits, where the Spirit of Christ dwells, can we make the choice to believe our Lord abides forevermore as the sole and singular Life of our lives. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" declared Paul, a joy based on God Himself dwelling in the spiritual depths of Paul, revealing that He alone serves as the contentment and fulfillment of our hearts (Romans 7:22).
The story of a young lady during the 19th century who progressively lost her limbs over the course of several years confirms this truth. She lay in bed for the majority of her lifetime, unable to move about or do anything that most would consider necessary for happiness and fulfillment. Early in the days of her calamity, however, she read the promise of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John: "He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). The girl took her Lord at His word. "I believe in You, Lord. So I trust You will be what I need You to be for my heart, and to enable me to honor You in this bed upon which I will lie for the duration of my life. And I ask you to work in me to bring forth life to others, even from this place of apparent languishing."
Taken at His Word, the Lord Jesus took the young lady to places of glory, glory in her heart provided by the presence of His heart. He filled her with His peace and joy, fulfilling the ancient promise, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because He trusted in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3). He led her to ask a friend to devise an apparatus to be attached to her shoulder that could hold a calligrapher's pen. He illuminated and strengthened her to learn how to move her body so as to write the most beautiful and Christ-filled letters. He moved hundreds of people to visit the woman confined to an earthly bed in body, but liberated to soar in the Heavenlies in spirit, as borne by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. People who visited the woman came away amazed and encouraged by the scene of Strength made perfect in weakness, of Vibrancy bursting forth from stillness, of Life proceeding from the appearance of death, and of Rivers of living water flowing from the seemingly driest of parched lands.
Our blessed Lord is that present. He is that faithful. He is that enabling. He is that wondrous. He is that loving. He is that fulfilling of hearts that choose to believe that, as my wife Frances says, "Having Him, we have all." Our hearts can - and must - make the choice to believe that if we found ourselves having lost all, but if the Lord Jesus remained, we would have lost nothing that fulfills the very essence of who we are. God forever reserves that role for Himself, and for whatever the days of this present life may bring to us. Yes, He will be what we need Him to be in every condition, circumstance, or situation, and He will be so much more…
"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places."
(Habakkuk 3:17-19)
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For 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 8:37-39)
Weekly Memory Verse
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
(Matthew 6:33)
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