Perspective

All of you is more than enough for all of me,
For every thirsting, every need,
You satisfy me with your love,
And all I have in you is more than enough.

I sang it in church last Sunday and I meant it sincerely. I know in my head that it's true. Christ is my greatest treasure. I have Him, and I don't really need anything else to be satisfied. I know it, but I don't always feel it.

It's easy to say I know it when all is calm. Sure, I'm satisfied in Christ when I don't actually have any felt needs. But how about when something I desperately want isn't happening? What about when I'm awakened by a sense of dread, my heart pounding so hard I'm surprised it doesn't wake my husband? When I'm walking around with a gnawing pain like someone just punched me in the gut? When something triggers a memory that makes a heaviness of heart hit me out of nowhere?

It's still true at those times that all I have in Christ is more than enough. The difference between when I just know it and when I actually experience it, I think, is where my focus is. Even when I go to him in prayer, my prayer can be all about my concerns, my fears, my wants. When I read His word, my focus can be looking for a comforting word or a promise to fix my problem. When I take my eyes off myself and go to His word looking to see once again how awesome God is, when my prayers praise Him for His amazing wisdom and majesty and mercy, then I come away feeling satisfied in Him. Next to his greatness, even the biggest problems lose their immensity.

My prayer for myself and my family is that of Paul for the Ephesians:
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:18-19) My eyes need some enlightening.

And here's something I need to be reminded of frequently:
Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His glorious face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.