Today, I'm going to be asking you guys some pretty hard questions. We're going to do some reflection and I'm going to pair this with scripture, a story time, and prayer.
First, I want to say a quick prayer: "LORD, we come to you with open hearts. Holy Spirit, please guide me, help me know exactly what to say, and help me make an impact on the life of whoever is reading this right now. Use me as a vessel for your work LORD, work through me, guide me, and protect me. I pray that whatever it is that each person is supposed to receive from this episode, they receive it and they implement it in their daily lives. Thank you so much for every single thing that you've done. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."
So in this episode, I want to go over one specific question and then I'm going to ask you guys some other questions as well as we reflect. The one big question is, is Jesus enough? I want you guys to really just sit on that throughout this episode and think, is Jesus enough? What I mean by this is a few different things...
The meaning may be different for you than in my life, but really over the past couple of weeks, I've come to the realization that I lack nothing with Jesus Christ. I mean, I've known this for years now, but there's going to come a time in our Christian lives when we're going to need these reminders. We're going to need these revelations. I really had received that revelation that no matter what it is that I'm doing, no matter what is happening in my life, that Jesus Christ is enough for me and that I lack nothing.
I know sometimes life gets really hard and things happen, and sometimes you feel like there are things that you need apart from God, apart from Jesus. You may feel like there are things that you have to have in your life that you cannot live without. Also, the enemy is going to try and use everything in this world to distract you from the most important thing in our lives, which is Jesus Christ. I've actually been having some spiritual warfare today, and I had this episode planned and I was like, "You know what? With all the spiritual warfare going on today, I need to do an episode about spiritual warfare." But I've already done a few of those before, so I'm like, "Okay, let me just stick with this episode," because I know this is very important and someone needs to hear this today. I also feel like I am getting the spiritual warfare and the devil has been doing some things to try and distract me from making this episode. and that's how I know someone needs to hear this.
Today, I want you to get out a piece of paper and a pen because we're going to take some notes. I want you guys to really just reflect today. So when you think about your life and you think about the things that are most important to you, I want you to just write those things down. Write down what is the very most important things in your life. Now, hopefully on the top of that list is God. There may also be some things like your family, your job, your house, and materialistic things. I mean for each person it could be different. Let's say all of the things on that list were taken away except for Jesus, would he be enough for you? Do you feel like you could live with just Jesus alone and not all the other things that are important in your life? I want you to really think and reflect on that for a minute.
Now let's get into some scripture:
"The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me." -Psalm 23:1-4
So I want to just sit on these verses for a minute. The Lord is our shepherd. We lack nothing. We have what we need with the Lord. There have been some things that have been happening over the past few days, which are little things. I wasn't even going to mention these, but God has just really been showing me that He is all that I need. There's nothing else that I need besides Him. There have just been little things like I went to go open up a jar and it was so hard for me to open and I'm like "Oh my goodness, where's a man when you need him?" Then the next thing I know, I go to try and open up the jar again right after I said that and I opened it up with ease and I'm like, "Thank you, Lord." It was like he was saying, "You don't need a man. You have me. You lack nothing with me." Last night I was trying to clean off some sticky residue from having a shower caddy type thing in my bathtub. I was trying to clean it off and it was difficult for me, so I'm like, "I really need another tool or something to clean this off." Then right after I said that I just started doing it with ease. I know this stuff may seem silly to you guys, but these have just been things for me that I'm like, "Lord, I literally need nothing with you. I lack nothing. I have you and that's all that I need."
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep. “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
-John 10:11-18
This is Jesus Christ talking in these verses. Jesus Christ is our good shepherd. He laid down his life for us and then He took his life up again. He rose three days later and whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life in heaven with Him and God the Father. John 3:16 says, "For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." God loved us so much that He sent His only Son on the cross to die for us. Jesus Christ loves us so much, He is our good shepherd, and He laid down His life for us. He rose again three days later and when we're saved by Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit in us to counsel us and to guide us.
We lack nothing with the Holy Spirit inside of us, being saved by Jesus Christ, and having God the Father as our Father. There is nothing in this life that could ever amount to what we get with Jesus Christ. We have eternal life with Him. That doesn't mean we're not going to face hardships in this life. It doesn't mean that we're not going to have struggles, we're not going to have losses, and there's not going to be bad things that are going to happen, but there's literally nothing that we lack when we have Jesus Christ.
This leads me to my second question... Was the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross enough for you? Now, like I said, I'm going to ask some hard questions. This may be hard for you to answer and it may be hard for you to think of. I want you to really reflect on this, because your first answer may be, "Of course, yes it is." But, are you living your life like the sacrifice that Jesus made for us is enough for you? Meaning when things get hard and you think that you need to control things on your own or you need to do all of these things, or whenever you think about all the sins that you've committed and think that you need to work your way into heaven, you have to ask yourself, "Wasn't the sacrifice that Jesus made for me enough?"
His sacrifice is the only thing that could get us into heaven. His sacrifice was necessary to be able to forgive us for our sins once and for all. Whenever we repent and ask Jesus Christ to come into our hearts, we have the Holy Spirit within us and we have that eternal life. Jesus had to lay down His life for us in order for us to be able to go to heaven with Him and God the Father.
So I want you to really think about that. Was the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross enough for you? Do you feel like you still need to work your way into heaven? Do you feel like there are things that you need to do on your own to be worthy? Or was his sacrifice enough?
Another question is... is his presence enough for you?
Here are some scriptures about the presence of God:
So first, let's just dive right back into Psalm 23 in verse 4. It says:
"Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me."
So we know that God is always right here with us. His presence is always with us
"You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures." -Psalm 16:11
So in this Psalm, David is saying that in the presence of God is abundant joy. We can see all throughout so many psalms that David wrote that he loved God so much, he embraced the presence of God, and he knew that God was always right there with him no matter what. There are so many verses in the Bible that show us that God is always right here with us and that his presence never leaves us.
"Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand." -Isaiah 41:10
So really take a few minutes to think today... is God's presence enough for you? Whenever you're feeling lonely, when you're feeling afraid, when you're worried, whenever things in your life are not going right, is the presence of the Lord that is always right here with you, is that enough for you?
"I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me."
-Philippians 4:11-13
So no matter what situation we're in, we can be content because we have Jesus Christ with us and He strengthens us. No matter what it is that we're going through, we can be content knowing that we can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us and that we lack nothing.
So before we wrap this up, I did want to go into a little bit of a story time that kind of led me to this revelation that I lack nothing. It really hit me because I started to forget it a little bit. Honestly, I hate to admit that, but there was a slight moment that I started questioning, "do I really lack nothing? Are there not other things that I need in this world?"
So I went to a women's conference back a few weeks ago and the day that I was going, someone from my past had reached out to me. Someone who was in the past for a reason. They called me while I was at work. They also texted me. So I was thinking maybe something happened and they were trying to get ahold of me. In their text, they said,, "Call me as soon as you can." I asked them if it was important and they said yes, that they really needed to talk to me. So I ended up calling them after work in between getting ready to go to this women's conference. Basically they were just trying to come back in my life. I'm not going to get into details, but I knew this person was in the past for a reason. God had delivered me from that and I was not supposed to go back to it. But they made it sound really convincing. Even though I knew in my Spirit that's not what I was supposed to do, I started questioning. The devil started playing with that a little bit.
I went to this women's conference and they were talking about all kinds of amazing things. This was a women's conference at my church and it was so incredible. So many chains were broken. So many tears were shed that weekend and it was just so incredible. I met some amazing ladies, but the main thing that I got out of it, which I've known, but I needed that reminder that weekend, is that I lack nothing.
There was one of the ladies that was speaking on Saturday, she was talking about a relationship that she had that was not good. She was in a marriage that was not good and she kept holding onto it. She was showing an illustration, which I love because I'm such a visual person. So basically what she was doing is she was like, "Lord, I give everything to you. I give it all to you. You can have it all. I lay my life down to you. I give it all to you, but this one thing, this one thing right here, please don't touch it, Lord. Please don't touch it." She was talking about her relationship. That really spoke to me because when I was in that relationship in the past, the person that had reached out to me, that was my prayers to the Lord. I was like, "Lord, I lay it all down to you. I surrender everything to you. I give you my all." But in my heart I knew like, please don't touch this relationship. I don't want you to touch it. Even though I was telling him, "Lord, if this is not from you, please take it away." I still could feel that I didn't want that to be taken from me.
So over these past 8 months, the Lord has been strengthening me. He has been working through a lot of things with me. He has just been my rock. He has been everything. I have literally lack nothing with Him, and he's just given me everything. For that split moment, when that person called and was telling me all the things I wanted to hear, I started to forget that. I had to be reminded. I had to be reminded. I went to the altar on that Saturday and I surrendered all to the Lord. I surrendered everything to him. I didn't hold anything back that day. It was so clear to me in my Spirit when I went up there and I just kept feeling and kept saying over and over to myself, "I lack nothing. Jesus Christ, you are all that I need. There is nothing else that I need in this world. You are everything that I need." A future husband would be a bonus, kids would be a bonus. My family is a bonus. My job is a bonus. But Jesus is everything that I need.
That day I needed that reminder, and I know today, someone reading this right now, needs this reminder that Jesus Christ is enough for us. The sacrifice He made on the cross is enough for us. His love, Him giving us eternal life, His spirit inside of us, the Holy Spirit in us, is enough for us. There is nothing that we lack with the Lord. Everything else that we get in this life is a bonus. It is given to us by God and He can take it away at any moment. But we can be content knowing that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
I just want to end with one other scripture, because someone may be listening to this right now and they may be thinking, "Okay, that sounds great, but I'm really going through it right now. I've got some weaknesses. I've got something that is really tormenting me right now. I'm being tormented by a messenger of Satan. I am being crushed by this world right now. There are things happening in my life and I just do not feel like I can handle this." I want to leave you with this scripture.. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 7-9 say, "especially because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” In our weaknesses, Christ's power is made perfect. His grace is sufficient for us. He is enough for us. We lack nothing with him. I know it may seem hard right now. You may feel very weak. There may be things going on beyond your control that you just do not think that you can handle it. You may be pleading to the Lord, "Please take this away from me." But we have to boast in our weaknesses because in our weaknesses, we are made strong because Christ power is made perfect in our weakness. His grace is sufficient for us. He's enough for us. We lack nothing with him. He gives us everything. He laid down his life for us and we have eternal life with him.
So I hope this episode helped you guys to know that Jesus Christ is enough for you, that His sacrifice is enough for us. His presence is enough for us, we lack nothing with Him, and His grace is sufficient for us. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Scripture taken from The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
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