At worship this week, we sang “Your Grace Is Enough” sung by Chris Tomlin. (I’ve placed the lyrics at the end for anyone who doesn’t know the song.) Something hit me while I was worshipping that really made me think about my life. I know God’s grace is enough to save me, that’s a no-brainer. But what I wondered is whether I am content or satisfied with God’s gift of grace.
In Philippians 4:11-13, Paul is responding to the Philippians’ concern for him while he is imprisoned in Rome. Paul’s response to their concern and gifts is that he has “…learned how to be content with whatever I have.” (v. 11) Am I content with what I have? God has given me this huge gift of His grace; I am forgiven and loved by the God who created all and is all. Am I selfish enough to continually desire more? Yes, and that is what hit me when I was signing “Your Grace Is Enough.” I don’t live my life like God’s grace is all I need. I live my life like that gift He gave me, sacrificed for me, is a right and that I deserve more.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that we shouldn’t ask God for whatever is in His will, but I don’t believe that I seek His will often enough to know what God wants for and from me. I have to learn to let go of my desires and learn to embrace God’s desires. God desires me to live for Him, not for me. God desires me to love others, not just myself. God wants me to use my time, energy, talent, and money for His work, not for my selfish desires.
All too often, I look at my life and think, why don’t I have this, or why don’t I have that. I need to learn to look at my life and thank God that I have what He has given me and be content with it, not continually want and desire more. I need to look at my life and do my best to honor God for his gift of grace. I want to be able to truly say to God that His grace is enough for me. Being single at 32, this is, more often than not, a very difficult thing to say. I want to be able to say it and mean it with everything that I am. I want God to be my all and I want to recognize that He is all I want and need.
"...it’s when we’re on the brink of personal collapse that we’re best able to shift the direction of our soul from self-protection to trusting love. The more deeply we enter into the reality that life without God is sheer desolation, the more fully we can turn toward Him.... The richest love grows in the soil of an unbearable disappointment with life. When we realize life can’t give us what we want, we can better give up our foolish demand that it do so and get on with the noble task of loving as we should. We will no longer need to demand protection from further disappointment. The deepest change will occur in the life of a bold realist who clings to God with a passion only his realistic appraisal of life can generate." - Dr. Larry Crabb, Inside Out
“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” - Socrates
“The world draws the heart from God; and the more the love of the world prevails, the more the love of God decays…. Unless this victory over the world is begun in the heart, a man has no root in himself, but will fall away, or at most remain an unfruitful professor. Yet these vanities are so alluring to the corruption in our hearts, that without constant watching and prayer, we cannot escape the world, or obtain victory over the god and prince of it.” (1 John 2, Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible.)
1 John 2:16 “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.”
Proverbs 15:15 “For the despondent, every day brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.”
Proverbs 27:20 “Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied.”
Ecclesiastes 1:8 “Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.”
Your Grace Is Enough
Great is Your faithfulness oh God
You wrestle with the sinner's heart
You lead us by still waters in to mercy
And nothing can keep us apart
[So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me]
Great is Your love and justice God
You use the weak to lead the strong
You lead us in the song of Your salvation
And all Your people sing along
[Chorus x3]
Your grace is enough
Heaven reaching down to us
Your grace is enough for me
God I see your grace is enough
I'm covered in your love
Your grace is enough for me
For me
Composed by Matt Maher
