How Much Is Enough?

This morning I want to continue with the Good News. Last week you’ll remember that we talked about how God never gives up on us, God desires our presence, deems us worthy and risks everything to bring us back. And when we come back all of heaven rejoices. This week I want to ask how well does God know you and what does that have to do with our faith and us? As I read Psalm 139 I just want you to listen to the imagery or feel free to read along if you are a visual learner.
This passage has been called-“The most personal expression about God in the Old Testament.”

Psalm 139
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

Wow!
Can you imagine if this was your prayer every day? What would your life be like if this was the kind of intimacy you experienced with God every moment of the day?

I have to admit I am jealous of the psalmist. She seems to know God intimately and have such a deep personal faith and connection with God. Whereas a lot of times I struggle, and I think we struggle. We struggle with questions and doubt. We struggle with sin and guilt.

We live in a world that works around the exchange of goods and services using money and credit and unfortunately, we treat our lives a lot the same way. Our relationships are based on a give and take mentality. I’ll do something for you if you do something for me. If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. And so that same attitude bleeds over into our relationship with God. We can’t seem to fathom the idea of unconditional love.
We struggle with the knowledge that “even our darkness is not dark to God” and God knows us down to the last detail and thought, and yet still loves us and accepts us.

We have this idea that we have to earn it-we have to earn God’s love and grace. And there are some people who even stress and encourage this belief system. Well if you would just pray more, or read the Bible more, or serve more, or had more faith, then you will be blessed, healed, or whatever. I want to ask-How much is enough?

How much is enough prayer, enough Bible study, enough church attendance, enough service, enough faith? If I do all that 23 hours a day is that enough? If I have 67.8% faith, is that enough? If your faith is based on the exchange of behavior in order to get God to do what you want, what’s that called? Magic God is not a magician. And you can’t earn something you already have. It’s like being on salary-do you get paid for overtime? No matter how much our Max messes up, will I ever stop loving him? How much more do you think God loves us?

(From Relevant Newsletter) The Bible states that we will never be able to fully comprehend Christ's love, though we can experience it. We can know God, but only in part—as much as we seek to know Him, really. The way we live is our response to God’s love for us. When you love someone what do you want to do? Please them. Not to earn their love, but to show your love for them. So, on this thought of love and pursuit, what does it really all boil down to?

"What can I do for you?"

That is what love, pursuit and seeking anyone and anything boils down to—what can I do for you? What can I offer, give, contribute, do, help, etc.? That is how Jesus still pursues us.

And there is no where we can go or hide and not be in the presence of God.
As the Psalmist points out God is everywhere-from Sheol-where the dead reside to the places we don’t think or believe God could be-God is there. Thus, we can never be far from the Spirit/God’s presence. I really love it when I hear people say, “I can’t tell you, we’re in church” like this place is any more sacred or holy than anywhere else. God doesn’t just live at the church.

(From Relevant)
So if God is everywhere, is God in everyone? God’s very character goes into the creation of every person. When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, remember that God’s Spirit is already in you ready and willing to work within you. We should have as much respect for ourselves as our Maker has for us. God takes us right where we are and invites us to the next step.

Thomas R. Kelly in his book “A Testament of Devotion” says that our intimacy with God is the root of our relationship with God. If we draw close to God, then we will bear the fruit of service to God and others.

Kelly says that “there is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating and meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, at a more profound level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship. .. It is this deep level of prayer and divine attendance that is the most important thing in the world.”

May we all have relationships with God, in which we can say, “O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me… you are familiar with all my ways.” And “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!... When I awake, I am still with you.” As we leave this place today, may we continue with God, keeping our thoughts on him, and awaking with thoughts of God in the morning.