Is God Enough?

At one level the question seems absurd…

Of course God is enough. He has to be enough…He is God!

But the reality is many followers of Jesus live on a daily basis as if God is not enough…constantly trying to fill the empty space of our time. We fill it with music, relationships, TV, social media, food, video games, etc.

None of these are bad things. Their badness is not the problem. The problem arises when these are used to fill a space God is not filling.

One enormous benefit of growing spiritually is this: God becomes enough.

I became a Christian the last week of September 1985, through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. I was a freshman at the time at the University of Delaware. Two weeks later I attended my first Christian weekend retreat at a place called Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island. The speaker was speaking on Hebrews 12:1-2, which says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…”

At the end of the weekend I wrote these words in my journal:

This weekend was the first experience I ever had with a quiet time. I never used to be able to be alone. I always had to be doing something. After having my first quiet time I see it as a way to become closer to God. For the first time I enjoyed being alone. But I wasn’t alone. I was with God.

I remember as a teenager always needing to be busy, fearing moments alone, moments of boredom. As I look back today, I ask the question, why? I realize now because there was an empty space, a space my life I was desperately trying to fill with activity. The empty space existed because I did not have a relationship with God.

Then on that first weekend retreat with God something happened. I did not fully understand it, but I experienced it. Something had changed in my life, and for the first time being alone was not scary. That something which changed was the presence of God in my life. For the first time God had become enough. I did not need to be busy all the time. I could stop filling the empty space within me with activity.

It was a good feeling because the problem with activity is it never really fills the space. Activity never really brought satisfaction. Activity has to be maintained at all times. It was like trying to fill a bucket with water when the bucket has holes in it. I could keep the bucket full as long as I kept putting water in it.

Ultimately a lack of contentment is a symptom of a lack of spiritual intimacy with God. A lack of contentment reveals that God is not enough and we hunger for something other than God to fill that space within us.

As you grow spiritually, you will find God becoming more and more enough.

Don’t underestimate the power of God becoming enough in your life! It is an awesome feeling!