Enough

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. The devotional is indented and abbreviated.

A Psalm of David . . . after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
Title of Psalm 51

Enough is the persistent problem this side of eternity. Enough is what we seldom seem to get right. Enough is what trips us up, again and again. Enough is one of our deepest sources of trouble. Enough is what we find such difficulty in being satisfied with. Although the definition is different for each of us, the struggle with our enough is that it tends to keep expanding. And when it does, we never seem to have enough.

How true that is. We have our eyes on something and then as soon as we get it we are either looking to get a better one or something else that caught our attention. I remember a friend from many years ago. After they moved into a new home he told me that this was their dream home. A few years later, the dream changed.

It's the thing that slaps you in the face in Psalm 51. How could what David had been given not be enough? Born into a family of faith, anointed by the great prophet Samuel, chosen to be the king of Israel, set apart to be the father of the Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ! How could it not be enough?

Comparison and the desire for pleasure and things, makes us forget all of the blessings we already possess. Our home isn’t good enough, our spouse could use an upgrade, our car is a piece of crap and the job is a bummer.

Through David, the promised Messiah would come and provide salvation for the world. David's anointing was much, much more than a position of leadership in a tiny little Palestinian kingdom. It was much more than the blessing of God's appointment to a certain place and a certain time. No, the reign of David was about a far greater kingdom, the kingdom of God.

What is it that God wants to do through me and what is it that the devil would like to derail through lust and discontent? What bigger thing is in danger of being traded for some small fleeting pleasure?

So, why was all this not enough for David? It wasn't enough because what started out as God's kingdom morphed into David's kingdom. What was to be driven and shaped by the will of God became controlled by the desires of David. What was to be motivated by spiritual vision got kidnapped by physical sight and sexual craving. Having lost the war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of self, David no longer viewed what God had given him as enough.

Is that a clue to our discontent? If we are lean in out relationship with God do we look to fill the hole with something else?

But don't be too hard on David. His dilemma is your story too. You get angry in traffic; you get irritated at people; you overeat; you fantasize yourself beyond God's boundaries; you get addicted to power, possessions, and people precisely because, in your sin, you are not satisfied.

Sin wrecks everything. Grace and God’s power can deliver us from its grasp…if we are willing. Sometimes we are not sick enough of the sin in our life to abandon it. It’s still fun…maybe later....

May each day be a step toward satisfaction. May we grow daily in the experience of being filled and satisfied by him. As the old Christian chorus says, "May the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." May we say with joy and integrity of heart, "He is enough."

A question from the meditation:

How skilled are you at telling yourself again and again that what God has given you in himself is enough?

As I think about this I see that part of the key is what I tell myself. What is the message I am hearing from myself? Is it loud enough to drown out the voice of the world? I know the truth of Scripture and need to keep it in the front of my mind. I know that what God has provided is enough; I just need to remember.

Philip


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