When God says, ‘enough is enough’
- deansimpson7
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 4
“Do you ever feel ‘disconnected’ in one of the most ‘connected’ periods of human history?”
BY LAUREN MARTIN
Time is a funny thing, isn’t it? It can feel fast or slow. It can frustrate us in times of waiting or bring us great joy when things fall into place ‘just at the right time’. Our God is timeless yet holds all of time in his hands. It blows my mind.
During the COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns, we lost so much, yet many of us gained the gift of time. Time to ponder, time to invest in ourselves and our relationship with God, time to re-align our priorities when so much of the ‘stuff’ that usually sat in our calendars was stripped away. (I want to recognise, though, that for our dedicated essential workers this was not the case.)
Cultural norms
Now that this period is over, it often seems like the pace of life in our modern world hasn't just returned to ‘normal’ but has actually sped up. The intentions and new rhythms we created are, for some of us, slipping away, lost in the cultural norm of ‘busy’.
For most of my Christian life, I have wrestled with God about the issue of ‘time’. I would joke that I often prayed that God would give me more hours in the day. A request that was never granted! I knew that the more things I stuffed into my calendar, the less time I had to hear God’s voice. But the demands of life, and the desire of my heart to “love others well”, “fulfil the demands of my job”, to “be there for people”, and “be a good mum”, “good wife”, “good friend”, (the list goes on) overwhelmed the underlying truth that God says: enough is enough.
Do you ever feel ‘disconnected’ in one of the most ‘connected’ periods of human history?
Disconnection from God occurs at various stages in our lives, for different reasons, in different seasons. Some people call it a ‘wilderness’ experience, likening it to the Israelites in the desert because they had lost touch with their true identity and calling. It can also happen when we are so busy doing ‘all the good things’ that define our earthly roles as mother, father, disciple, friend, husband, wife, partner etc. that we don’t even realise we have also lost touch with our true identity and calling.
Enough is enough, says God.
Intimacy with God
We are enough, just the way we are. Psalm 139 tells us that. God’s deepest desire is not for our calendars to be full of good deeds, but for intimacy with us. Jesus emphasised this when he responded to the Pharisees’ question about the greatest commandment.
Loving God comes first, loving our neighbour flows from that. Putting ‘first things first’ means entering into intimacy with God, and allowing that to change us, mould us and guide us – and our schedules.
Jesus showed us a life of intimacy with God during his time here on the earth and consistently invited us to ‘follow him’ in living that kind of life. In Psalm 23, David reveals the fullness of life that comes when we take the time to follow God into deeper and deeper levels of intimacy.
Recently, I took the time to attend a two-hour prayer meeting that a group of my colleagues attend every week. “Two hours!” I thought, “Every week! How do they fit that into their busy Salvation Army ministry schedules?” I felt curious and drawn to experience this practice that they had been faithful to now, for five years. Wow. I came away from those two hours feeling lighter, refreshed, more centred and focused. No wonder they had told me that blocking that time into their diaries actually “enhanced” rather than reduced their productivity.
God says to us that we are enough. The question is, do we believe it? Are we trusting and brave enough to say: ‘enough is enough’ to our busy schedules and take the time to enter into deeper intimacy with him? That’s the challenge I have accepted.
If you want to read more about the south-west Sydney prayer cell that Lauren visited, the story is here
