We are pondering questions this week and considering not only our own questions, but also the questions the Lord is asking of us. One question that continues to plague me is one I don’t voice out loud but my thoughts and actions seem to be forever asking this question … “Is Jesus Christ really enough to get me through this?” Amidst all the unanswerable questions we may be in the middle of asking, one thing I am certain of is this: we can indeed BE Confident in the Sufficiency of Jesus Christ!
There are still so many questions in regard to suffering that I do not have an answer for yet. But while my questions are real, I am choosing to trust in an overarching truth that surrounds all my questions and uncertainties. The truth that Jesus us enough is one that our Beth discovered and is one I am seeking to understand further as I entrust each moment to Jesus through the joy and pain. Friends, while God may not give us all the answers to our questions right now, He has given us a solution! It is up to us as to whether we will trust God’s solution (our Lord Jesus Christ) in the swirl of our questions – or not!
These days, I find myself asking some different questions than I did at the beginning of the trial… “Could it be that Jesus did not respond to my cry to immediately heal Beth in this life because He wanted to enlarge my request for the greater good and greater glory of His name? Could it be that this is not about me or about Beth at all, but all about Him? Has He, in fact, delivered my girl and answered my cry in a far more glorious way than I ever dared imagine? Did Jesus meet Beth’s actual need rather that just her temporary, immediate needs in this life? Is she now experiencing the healing she needed and the relationship with Christ she desired? I sense that the answers to these questions are a resounding YES! – but only because of His sufficiency.
Although the whole thing is still a mystery to me and I still have my unanswered questions, what I do know is that my desire to see more of God and His glory have grown through our trials– exponentially! Beth’s desire to know God and see more of His glory also grew in leaps and bound the more desperate she became. My prayer life has matured through this whole process. For instance, the requests I had of God at the beginning of the journey all centered on my pain and the pain of my loved ones. But while my cries to God are still tainted with my own pain, I find they are much more centered on God – His will and His glory. My heart, with all its imperfections, is more aligned with God’s heart than before. It is more accepting and desiring of His agenda rather than my own personal comfort. Only He could do that work within me, within any of us.
Now that’s not to say that the ‘personal comfort prayers’ don’t keep popping up and are not important to God. But as I battle this life, filled with the blessing of His grace, there is a greater understanding that has come through believing in Jesus and watching Beth’s mature response to her suffering.
Fellow sojourners, in light of the promises of Jesus and the examples before us, let us rest and BE Confident in Jesus our Messiah. He is sufficient, more than enough. He can deliver you through each and every situation and offers you every kind of resource you need. One day, the questions that need to be answered will be and those that don’t won’t matter any more! So let us be open to accepting that we have questions but we don’t have to get stuck in confusion of them. Let us move on to know the sufficient Christ more and more because of them! Will you entrust the all-sufficient One with every question and uncertainty you have? Will you believe with me right now that His grace is truly enough? For you, for me, for everyone forever and ever, Amen!
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9
Songs to encourage you:
New Song by Jordan Worner
Right In Front of Me by Josh Wilson
Questions by Steven Curtis Chapman
I Believe in Love by Barlow Girl
Psalm 42 by Sons of Korah
Quote to inspire:
“Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God.” Andrew Murray
Books to build you up:
Prayer by Andrew Murray
Where is God When it Hurts? By Philip Yancy
The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis