Christ is Enough

By Carey Helmink

If you are an attender at Lincoln Berean church, you know that we have spent the last couple of weekend services talking about whether Christ is ENOUGH for anything and everything we face in this life. It’s easy to sing or say those words, but if I’m honest, I would have to say at best “I hope with all of my heart that Christ will be enough.” I hope that will be true in the struggles and losses I have yet to face in my life.

What I CAN say for sure, however, is that, up to this moment, it HAS been true, and I think that pattern is what we see in the Psalms so often. So many of the Psalms start out by voicing the struggle, but they end with a reminder of who God is and what he’s done in the past. For example, Psalm 13:

O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?

How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.

Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!” Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me.

I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.

I love the Psalms because we are given permission to tell the truth–to call our fears and doubts what they are. But we are also reminded to look back and remember times when God has been faithful to us in the past. AND sometimes we can even draw from the experiences of others – how God has been faithful to them.

Listen to this quote from Courage, Dear Heart by Rebecca K. Reynolds:

“Paul wrote, ‘Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our other man is decaying (and at my age, that outer man is decaying rapidly . . . but I digress . . .) yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.’ What is this weight of glory? It’s the substance . . . of a gospel that secures what we can never secure in our own willpower. During the months and years of our affliction on earth, we cry out to the God who lives inside us, a God who knows what we aren’t able to do, a God who stands ready to give us everything we need forever and ever.”

Courage, dear women. The God who lives IN you will be enough FOR you, both now and forever.