What do you need for today? Do you feel like you’ve been waiting so long for something that has yet to come? Do you feel a growing discouragement that it won’t ever come? Do you look at your day and feel it has already become too big for you to handle?
There are many things I have asked God for that He hasn’t brought yet. And there are things He has promised me that He hasn’t yet fulfilled. I was reading Genesis 17, which begins by telling us that Abram is now 99 years old. This man has been waiting on God’s promise of a son who will become a great nation for many, many years. I bet he’s been tempted to quit believing God’s promise many times.
God comes to Abram and tells him, “I am the God who is more than enough” or El Shaddai. In order to keep waiting and believing, living in God’s presence and according to His direction, Abram needed to know God’s enoughness for each circumstance. He needed to know that God was deeply involved in the mundane, the ordinary of life. This is also where God changes Abram’s name to Abraham. Another symbol of the walk with God as He led Abraham on into the life He had for him.
Many days in this walk of being a parent, a spouse, a daughter, a sister, a believer—I need to know God’s enoughness. There are so many circumstances for which I feel unprepared and without enough knowledge. So many problems that seem insurmountable for me. I want to run and hide, but I must carry on in walking forward. But that is not in my own strength. He is enough, the provider, the nurturer who cares for His beloved children with compassion and incredible connectedness.
And some days, I want to cry out and tell Him He must have missed my particular case. Because it is too much, too long and too scary. He answers without the timeline that I really want (ok, I’ll bring fulfillment of this promise at such-and-such a time on this day) but with another promise—I will be enough.
He is enough for the waiting. Enough for the unknown. Enough for the doubt and fear. Enough for the lack of confidence. Enough for the rejection. Enough for the all the places I lack.
When I walk forward believing He is enough, I don’t always know the how but I always know the who. He will do it. When I’m not sure, but He will do it. And I don’t to have hide from my lack or my inability, but simply trust His fulness and ability. He is within, and I am in Him. He is enough, so I am enough because of His Life. I get to trust Him in each circumstance, the mundane and the crisis, to show Himself to be El Shaddai, the God who is more than enough.
When Abram was 99 years old, Yahweh appeared to him again and said, "I am the God who is more than enough. Live your life in my presence and be blameless.” Genesis 17:1