THE LAST AND GREATEST LESSON that all of us have to learn is the fact that God, and God alone, is enough for all our needs. This is the lesson that all God's dealings with us are meant to teach; and this needs to become the crowning discovery of our Christian life. God is enough! God is enough for you and God is enough for me.

After 63 years of life, with its successes, mistakes and failures, which have prevented me from appropriating the fullness that was always mine IN HIM, I want to draw some conclusions at the end of this year.

God tells us through all the pages of His Holy book what He is. "I am," He says, "all that my people need"-" I am their strength"- "I am their wisdom"- "I am their righteousness"- "I am their peace"- "I am their salvation"- "I am their life"- "I am their all in all." I am coming to the positive conviction that He is, in Himself alone, enough for all our possible needs, and that we may safely rest everything IN Him, absolutely and forever.

Most of us have, I suppose, sung these words in one of our most popular old-time hymns:

Thou, O Christ, art all I want,

More than all in Thee I find.

But I doubt whether any of us can honestly say that these words express the daily reality of our own experience. Christ has not been all we want. We have wanted a great many things besides Him. In a worldly sense we have striven for success, possessions, positions, popularity and wealth. In our religious lives try a few of these on. We have substituted the rays of light for the Source of light. We have substituted our doctrines in place of Him. We have substituted our church work and our attendance in place of Him. How about our lifestyles? Such as health reform, dress reform, or educational reforms. How many people do we hear emphasize how they are vegetarians or vegans more than they emphasize God. How many of us are proud of being homeschoolers and using only Bible-based curriculum or dressing modestly more than we are proud of dwelling IN HIM. We hear of many people speak of their mission trips, Bible studies, evangelistic outreaches, stop smoking clinics, Revelation seminars and last day events more than we do of the GREAT I AM. It is not uncommon to hear us speak of being, "the chosen ones," or "the remnant," more than,"THE ABIDING ONES."

Is it possible to have all this and still not possess ONENESS WITH GOD In our daily lives? That is what I've been wrestling with these past silent months. I'm hoping that you can learn from my mistake and subsequent victory.

The psalmist says: "My soul, wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from him." It seems to me that not until everything fails us such as friends, finances, family, churches, businesses and occupations, will we put our total trust and rest in God alone. We seem to only go to Him when we have nowhere else to go. Then it is we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but hopefully upon the Rock of our salvation. Not a one of us can really be at rest, until we have given up all dependence on everything else and have been awakened to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us. Are we not told that, "God only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense: I shall not be moved?"

I do not mean by this that we are not to have sound doctrine, church attendance, outreach, good works, good diets or knowledge of end times. We may have all of these, but they must be the peripheral of our religion and not the center of it. We should never be dependent upon them for our spiritual condition but only upon our daily surrender and acquiescence to the great I Am.

We are to find God and God alone, whether we find him in a desert or in a fertile valley. Unfortunately, God is often obliged to allow us to be deprived of all our joy in everything else, in order that He may awaken us to find our joy only and altogether in Himself. This is good medicine for us. Why? Because it brings us to the reality that, " Our sufficiency is in God." For He is able and willing to do for us "exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think." When this peace and comfort is ours, then it is that we may know, God reigns supreme in our lives.

When I felt that I needed something more than just God, my eyes had to be opened to the fact of the absolute and utter all-sufficiency of God. Now, through much difficulty and trial, I am finding out that God and God alone is enough and my soul is at rest! If you are struggling with something, I would suggest that this is the golden thread that runs through all our trials. When we find that God and God alone is enough, the trial has been our greatest blessing.

Now our distinction does not lie in our adherence to some special creed or set of lifestyle reforms. But our difference lies in the dynamic of Gods life within us and around us. He it is who now determines our deportment. We are no longer our own; we are His. Our conduct, our conversation, our characters are living witness that He has complete command of our lives. What an honor! What a high and noble calling! God and God Alone!

Resting in Him,

   Jim  

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