Articles
More than Enough
Ever wonder how much work for the Lord is enough?
Preachers started making me feel guilty when I was a teen-ager in the 1960’s. Listening to them, there is never enough. “Work for the night is coming.”
Interestingly, God’s word tells us that our work for Him can be enough. More than that, Christians can know when it is enough.
Genesis 24 tells us how Abraham sent his servant to find a Canaanite wife for Isaac. When the servant found Rebeccah, he asked for lodging and Rebeccah told him that he was welcome because they had enough.
In Genesis 33, when Jacob and Esau met after being separated, both said they had been blessed by God and they had enough. They had enough to be able to give to their brother.
When Israel heard in Genesis 45 about Joseph, it was enough that Joseph was alive. He did not need to know the details.
When the people were asked to work to build the sanctuary in Exodus 36:5,6 the people actually had to restrain themselves. “And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which Jehovah commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.”
God told Israel through Isaiah that their sacrifices were ineffective as long as their hearts were not right. He had had enough. Isaiah 1:11 “What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.”
Jesus advises in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 that the light that we generate in our lives is limited. For there to be enough, we must not waste. Here, I believe, is the answer.
It is enough when we have determined though prayer and study and self-examination that we have identified our unique abilities to serve God and have looked ahead to the service that lies before us and have determined how to mete out our efforts to be effective until the end.
There are those who are so on fire for the Lord that they burn out in a few years. In contrast, there are those who never recognize their God-given abilities and spend their entire lives going to church and listening and reading but fail to let their light shine.
Your work is enough when you and God have determined what you can do and when you are doing it at a pace and in a manner that assures consistent living in the light.
It is enough.
