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  Psalms, Proverbs                                        

 

 

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. 

He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense;

I shall not be moved. 

In God is my salvation and my glory:

the rock of my strength,

and my refuge, is in God.”

(Psalm 62:5-7)

The greatest lesson a soul has to learn is that God, and God alone, is enough for all its needs.  This is the lesson that all God’s dealings with us are meant to teach, and this is the crowning discovery of our entire Christian life.  GOD IS ENOUGH!

No soul can really be at rest until it has given up dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone.  As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us.  Feelings may change, doctrines and dogmas may be upset, the Christian work may come to naught, prayers may seem to lose their fervency, promises may seem to fail, everything that we have believed in or depended on may seem to be swept away, and only God is left—just God, the bare God, if I may be allowed the expression, simply and only God.

If God is what He would seem to be from his revealings; if He is indeed the “God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3); if He is our Shepherd; if He is really and truly our Father; if, in short, all the many aspects He has told us of His character and His ways are actually true, then we must come to the positive conviction that He is, in himself alone, enough for all our needs and that we may safely rest in Him absolutely and forever.

 

The thing that helped me most to come to a conviction that God was really enough for me was an experience I had some years ago.  It was at a time in my religious life when I was passing through a great deal of questioning and perplexity.  There happened to be staying near me for a few weeks a lady who was considered to be a deeply spiritual Christian and to whom I had been advised to apply for spiritual help.  I summoned my courage and went to see her and poured out my troubles, expecting that she would be at great pains to do all she could to help me.

She listened patiently, but when I had finished my story and had paused, expecting sympathy and consideration, she simply said, “Yes, all you say may be very true, but then, in spite of it all, there is God.”  I waited a few minutes for something more, but nothing came, and my friend and teacher had the air of having said all that was necessary. 

“But,” I continued, “surely you did not understand how very serious and perplexing my difficulties are.”

“Oh yes, I did.” replied my friend, “but then, as I tell you, there is God,” and I could not induce her to make any other answer.

 

It seemed to me most disappointing and unsatisfactory.  I felt that my peculiar and harrowing experiences could not be met by anything so simple as the mere statement, “Yes, but there is God.”

My need was so great that I did not give up with my first trial but went to my friend again and again, always with the hope that she would begin to understand the importance of my difficulties and give me adequate help.

It was of no avail, I was never able to draw forth any other answer.  Always, with an air of entirely dismissing the subject, she would give the simple reply, “Yes, I know; but there is God.” 

And at last, by dint of her continual repetition, I became convinced that my friend really and truly believed that the mere fact of the existence of God as the Creator and Redeemer of mankind, and of me as a member of the race, was an all-sufficient answer to every possible need of His creatures.  At last, because she said it so often and seemed so sure, I began dimly to wonder whether God might really be enough, even for my need, overwhelming and peculiar as I felt it to be. 

From wondering I came gradually to believing, that, being my Creator and Redeemer, He must be enough; and finally a conviction burst upon me that He really was enough, and my eyes were opened to the all-sufficiency of God.

 

My trouble disappeared like magic, and I did nothing but question how I could ever have been such an idiot as to be troubled by them, when all the while there was God, the almighty and all-seeing God, the God who had created me and who was therefore on my side, eager to care for me. 

I had found out that God was enough, and my soul was at rest.

 

Taken from her devotional book, God is Enough, by H.W. Smith

Psalm 62: 5-7

GOD'S PROTECTION

God is Enough

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