The Day My Tank of Sufficiency Maxed Out

My tank of sufficiency was maxed out. I was at the end of myself. What do you do when the trials come and you have nothing left?

The days have been full as we minister in a town that is 90% unchurched, manage our work at home lives, prepare for an upcoming road trip, and attempt to create memories as a family and in our marriage.

As I drove to meet a friend for coffee a few days ago, I found myself praying for strength. I cried out to the Lord to help me because everything just seemed so hard. The burdens of this world sat heavy on my heart and everything seemed like an uphill battle.

I needed physical rest, but on this day, in this moment, the Lord needed me to be available.

To be present.

To be His hands and feet.

Before heading home that afternoon, I learned that my oldest had a nasty bug that had contaminated our entire home.

I confess: I shook my fist at the Lord.

Why now? Why? Didn’t I just say everything felt so hard right now? Is it necessary to make things harder?

As I drove down the mountain to savor a cup of coffee, things seemed hard. As I raised the RPMs in my suburban to trek back up the same hill, things felt impossible.

My tank of sufficiency was maxed out. I was at the end of myself.

I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. ~Haggai 2:17

In that moment, God showed me He wants me to rely on Him. He wants me to trust in Him. He wants me to do His will. He wants me to work for His glory and not my own.

I learned that sometime trials come in my life because my heart has strayed from the Lord.

My greatest need is to be rescued from sin and destruction. My greatest need is God’s greatest gift – the person and work of Jesus Christ.

I need Jesus, and the trials of this world remind me of my great need of a Savior. The trials of this world are God’s faithfulness to us as His children. His discipline has a purpose.

I encourage you that if you’re at the end of your sufficiency today, turn toward the Lord in your trials and sufferings. Seek him through a simple prayer or time in the Word. And ask Him to help you draw from the strength He supplies through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you.

I believe that God has a purpose and that God has a plan, and that we can trust that His ways are perfect. We can trust that His ways are good. We can trust that suffering and trials are handed to us from a loving and just God who is molding and shaping us each day into the likeness of His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. (See Romans 8:18-30)

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Him (John 14:6). Our sufficiency is from God (2 Corinthians 3:5). Trials do not change the truth of the Gospel. (James 2:2-4)

As the Lord reminded me of these truths, and as I handed my days over to Him, my circumstances did not change. But yet everything changed because I had the strength of the Lord and the perspective of my loving Father for that moment.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-17

Go in grace today my friend. You are loved by an Awesome God!

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