Last night, I started thinking about something, and I want to share it with you in this post. I was thinking about my desire to have stuff. I own an expensive bicycle, a new 15″ MacBook Pro, an iPhone 4S, a new Kindle Touch, and a decent size library of books. But there resides an insatiable desire for more, more stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wealthy at all. I study theology, one of the very few advanced degrees in which people do NOT make more money after graduation, and I am content in that. I’m not saying that people should sell all their stuff to be holier either. I enjoy riding my bicycle, especially since it is an awesome way to permeate a community, I use my MacBook on a daily basis for school, writing on Reformed Mind, web designing, corresponding with people, etc., and my Kindle Touch has drastically helped to lower the amount of weight I carry every day.
What I want to examine in my own life, and I want to encourage you to do the same, is our heart’s desire to acquire stuff and ask ourselves why that is so. Why is it that the things we own now are not enough? Why do we want the next best thing? Why do we have to buy top of the line? Why does it have to include the bells and whistles? What is it in your life that is just not enough?
Let me share a story. I love the Old Testament, but I haven’t always. When I began reading the Old Testament and saw myself in the characters of Scripture, I felt conviction for being just like the rebellious Israelites. For instance, after the Lord delivered the Jewish people from Egyptian captivity, Moses went up the mountain to meet with the Lord and receive the Ten Commandments by which the people were to live. While he was gone, do you know what the people did? Instead of worshipping the God who delivered them from slavery, the people gathered their gold and threw it into the fire and then fashioned a gold calf to worship! After Moses came down and saw their despicable action, he broke the first set of tablets out of anger.
Even to the Israelite people, deliverance from captivity and the hope of the Promised Land was not enough; they insisted on bowing down to an inanimate object fashioned from a material substance rather than worshipping the personal God, Yahweh, who meets His people right where they are, shows them lovingkindness, and delivers them from slavery. Even in the Old Testament, people displayed insatiable desires.
Today, step back from the routine of your daily life and ask yourself this simple question, “Is the Lord enough?” Think about it! Think about the sacrifice of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, where you have been in life, and where the Lord will take you. I think if we asked that question more often, we wouldn’t wrestle with the small things and even many of the “large” things in life. If we focused more on the Lord and less on ourselves, then we would know true heart change.
Think about the far reaching implications. Would you view that husband/wife who just isn’t enough differently? What about those children who are just irritating most times? What about that self-image that grips you every time you walk past the mirror? My hope is that today you and I may find rest in knowing the Lord is enough.
