There is a song we sing at Grace Church called “Christ is Enough” (Hillsong Worship). The chorus of the song says,

“Christ is enough for me,
Christ is enough for me,
Everything I need is in you,
Everything I need.”

 
I sang those words yesterday and believed them in that moment. I knew that Christ was enough and the keeper of all I need, the keeper of the good and the perfect.

But today I wasn’t so sure. This morning I thought I was missing out.

I love my life. I have incredible friends, a wonderful church, a great job, and ways I can serve. But unfortunately, like so many of us, I forget how big my blessing is. This morning I felt jealousy because I am “alone”— wanting to be with someone yet not being with someone—while my friends are getting married and have seemingly obtained the best life has to offer.

This past weekend I told a bunch of fifth grade girls that Christ was enough for them and that complaining is really saying that God has not been good enough, that you don’t like what He has given to you, and that what He made and His plan aren’t good. I knew it for them, believed it for them. I knew and believed it for myself, too. It’s interesting to me that by this morning, after only a few short hours, I had already switched from trust to doubt and from thankfulness to ingratitude.

In Job 2, after Job had lost just about everything he had, including his children, his livestock, and his shepherds and farmers, his wife asks him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” He responds, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”

“It’s interesting to me that by this morning, after only a few short hours, I had already switched from trust to doubt and from thankfulness to ingratitude.”

And Romans 9:20-21 says, “Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?”

How many times have I prayed, “Take my life and let it be all for You and for Your glory” (Fee), and yet I continually fail to be thankful for the life I’ve been given? I find fault with it because my family isn’t like other families, or because my past is riddled with bad decisions and unhealthy relationships, or because I am not as successful in the eyes of society as others are. Should the created say to the Creator, “Why have you made me like this?” The answer is no.

While participating in a Redeeming Sexuality study recently, one of the leaders asked us the question, “If you never get married, will you still love Jesus?” If I never go on another date, if I never have the life I envisioned for myself, if He doesn’t answer the prayers I pray in the way I’d like Him to, will I still love Him? Is Christ really enough for me? Am I entitled to the life I think I want, or is God’s plan really better? Is He really better? Do I see Jesus as the ultimate, or do I see something else like a marriage as the ultimate?

If I think I’m entitled to something, to have a certain life, to be with a certain kind of person, I won’t be able to give of myself selflessly and sacrificially. As we learned in the study, “Expectations are just premeditated resentments” (Chrystie’s quote).

“If I think I’m entitled to something, to have a certain life, to be with a certain kind of person, I won’t be able to give of myself selflessly and sacrificially.”

In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are about to be thrown into a fiery furnace for worshiping God in a place where it is prohibited. King Nebuchadnezzar is enraged that they have broken his law that requires them to worship his statue instead of the living God, a crime punishable by death. They respond to him by saying, “if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). These men basically say that even if God doesn’t save them, He is still good and they will never turn away from Him.

Is that my attitude? Even if He doesn’t give me a husband, is He still good? The answer is yes, He still is good. Will He still be faithful? Yes, He is eternally faithful (Lamentations 3:22-24).

For me, the real question in the Redeeming Sexuality study isn’t whether or not a woman can find healing from her sexual sins in her past. The real question for me is whether or not I can accept His gift of forgiveness and rest in it, and whether or not I believe Christ is really enough.

“There is a wide spectrum of thoughts that need to go to prison, that do not need free reign in your mind.”

For you, dear sister, who has taken the time to read this article, my feeble and frail attempt to remind you that Christ is enough, my challenge to you is that you take these deceptive thoughts captive. These whispers from the world and the enemy that tell you that you’re not good enough, that your past disqualifies you from happiness, that you’re entitled to a perfect life or a perfect man, that your married friends have the best life has to offer—these are the lies you have to beat down with Scripture. There is a wide spectrum of thoughts that need to go to prison, that do not need free reign in your mind. This practice of taking them captive is hard and it is a discipline. But it is worth it.

When you take these thoughts captive, it’s a way to say to all that threatens to undo us, “Christ is enough for me.”

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” (2 Corinthians 10:5)