Having finished another Halloween season, the question lingers about too much candy or enough candy. And I think we could push the “enough” question into lots of areas in our lives. When do we have enough money? Food? Success? Stuff? Time? Exercise? Entertainment? Power? Church? Influence? Energy? In my opinion, we humans can have insatiable appetites – we want more of what we like & it’s not uncommon that we can’t ever seem to get “enough.” And I don’t think this only holds true for addicts or people who struggle with limits.
We see this same “enough” theme expressed in the Bible with:
- Solomon who never seemed to have enough women, despite having 700 wives and 300 concubines
- Nebuchadnezzar who had so much power, glory and wealth that he erroneously believed in his human supremacy until a divine interruption made him a raving lunatic for 7 years (Daniel 4)
- Judas who betrayed Jesus for more money – but his realization that money wasn’t more important than Jesus came too late in his thinking
And I think you could speculate that Martha possibly struggled with control (telling Jesus what to do regarding her sister in Luke 10:40 & her brother’s body being rancid with death in John 11). It’s possible that Joseph, Jacob’s son, wanted more power over his brothers when he kept telling them about his dreams and maybe flaunting the coat of many colors that his dad gave him.
So what do we do with the challenge about having “enough”? In the steps below, I’m suggesting some things that could be helpful to you & maybe some friends with whom you’d consider sharing this blog
- Where in your life might you see this “enough” struggle play out? In what spaces of your life do you want more?
- Does your desire for more cause you to behave in excessive ways? Do you find yourself temporarily satisfied until the satisfaction dwindles and becomes “not enough”?
- Consider this truth: I believe that we have insatiable appetities with only one resolution. Since God is infinite, the only solution for insatiable is infinite. In Ephesians 1:23 Paul tells us that God fills all things in all ways.
- Let the “more / enough” trigger serve as a reminder to look to our Inifinte God to be enough and fully satisfy that trigger and desire
With these steps, I’m keen for you to live in the reality that God is enough and here’s an example of what this looks like in my life. My appetite for more isn’t expressed with sugar, money, image, food, power nor stuff. Where I get tripped up with not having enough, is with friends. It’s not that I don’t have enough friends but I can struggle with having deep friendships – it’s like I want more depth. This used to frustrate me until I came to realize that my desire for deep connection is what God has given me so that I can only be satisfied with God meeting that desire for depth and connection.
So I’m increasingly living in the awareness that my desire for more and having enough is most thoroughly satisfied in my connection with God. There’s an old worship song that I sing from time to time that helps me live a more fulfilling and satisfying life: All of You is More Than Enough.
