Christ Satisifies

Through this trying time, we are learning to be content in Christ and with Christ – not always easy.  We want to let Christ satisfy us to the full that we might find our total satisfaction in Him alone.  As Charles Wesley put it:

Thou, O Christ, art all I want; More than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, Heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy name; I am all unrighteousness,
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace.

But be very, very careful; He might take you at your word, and withdraw everything from you, and leave you with Him alone, and nothing else.  It is then that you will prove Him as you’ve never done before.

When God, in His sure providence, takes your job from you, and with it your earning power, and when He threatens to take your wife and the mother of your children from you, life becomes profoundly serious.  It is then that you find yourself locked up to Christ alone.  He is enough, and we’ve proved that numerous times; but I’d still like to have Margaret around for many years to come.  It is a stark reality of God’s dealings with us that He sometimes takes us at our word, and gives us exactly what we have asked. He did that to us and we didn’t realise it.  We wanted Christ alone, and He is giving us that.  We have Him, and we are more than satisfied with Him.  The hymn-writer puts it well when he says, ”Take the world but give me Jesus.”

But you can see the inconsistencies of this the moment you write something like this down.  Satisfied with Christ alone, yes; but we want our loved ones healed of their illnesses to be around us for many years to come.

I think Christ understands these inconsistencies and contradictions in our faith.  It is a case of “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” (Mk 9:24).  We have put our faith in Him, but our lack of real trust when it is most needed is annoying.  And He does help us; He comes to our aid and assures us that we are His always.  That’s why we can say with the Psalmist in total honesty, “I love the LORD because He has heard My voice and my supplications.” (Ps.116:1).  Israel was facing a great crisis, and was in a time of great need, so her response was to put the God Who is alive and sovereign first.

What a fine thing it is, then, to be a Christian!  Why do sinful people not want to know and trust this wonderful Saviour?  What reason can they give for staying away from the Redeemer of the world?  There is none. 

If anyone reading this does not know Christ personally, ask yourself, why not?  Look how good He is, the Man Who went about doing good; the best Man the world ever knew.  Why are you staying away from Him?  He wants you to come to Him and trust Him with your soul.  My friends, He is altogether lovely, the bright morning star, and the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.  That’s our Saviour.  Our souls want nothing but Jesus, for in Him we have more than heart could desire.