There are times in life when we feel abundantly blessed, believing God has met our every need. Then there are times of struggle and hardship when He seems strangely silent and then times when He answers our questions but we don’t like the answer. In the tenth chapter of Mark, we meet a young man who runs up to Jesus, excited to ask one question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The young man is not asking a question in so much as he is looking for affirmation that he is good enough, smart enough. The real question of his heart is “Am I enough?”

Jesus looks upon him with compassion and love and poses another question, “Am I enough?” The implication to the young man is, “do you recognize that all you have and all you have accomplished is because of me? Young man, do you realize that when you lose all those things, you will still have me? Am I enough?”

Committing our lives to Christ is a lifelong journey of always becoming more, more loving, more peaceful, more joyful and ultimately more free. What the young man didn’t understand was that God didn’t have his whole heart. He was replacing God with other things and depending on them to make him enough.

We do the same thing. We look to our bank account or our job for security. We look to our accomplishments for our worth and value. We look to our good health as a sign of God’s favor and when we lose any of those things, we question God’s love for us. But God’s love is always faithful. It never gives up on us. On the other hand, it’s us who, like the young man in Mark 10, give up and walk away from God.

We decide that the sacrifices are too risky, too hard, and too much. What the young man did was focus on what he was losing rather than what he was gaining. The apostle Paul reminds us in the 3^rd chapter of Philippians what it means to gain Christ.

Philippians 3:7-11The Message (MSG)

^7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

^10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

Whatever place God has you in right now, know that He has your best interest in mind. Whether you find yourself on the mountaintop or the valley, understand that He sees the big picture and knows what you need better than you do. Trust Him to protect you, to give you security, value and worth. Let Jesus be enough!

Don’t let your fear and your insecurity push you away from God. Stop trying to ‘do’ on your own and trust the One who created you, who died for you, and who loves you with an unrelenting love. We will never be enough on our own, but the Good News is that Jesus is always enough!

Beloved, do you believe that Jesus is enough? Do you want Him to be enough for you? He stands at the door of your heart waiting for you to say, “Jesus you are enough for me. Lord, help me to believe you when you say, “I am enough.”

Blessings,

Pastor Kristen