Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. (2 Cor 11:24-27)What's the secret? Joseph told his brothers (who sold him), "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance." (Gen 45:7) Job said, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6) Paul said, "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ." (Phil 3:8)
There's a running theme here. Jeremiah states it in his lament over the destruction of Jerusalem. "The LORD is my portion. Therefore I have hope in Him." (Lam 3:24) It's not that events are pleasant. It's not that things are looking up. It's not that he found something comfortable somewhere amidst the trials. It's not that these men of God found satisfaction in God's plan for their lives. It's that knowing Christ was of supreme value, that the Lord is my portion.
Are you satisfied? Are you satisfied with God's plan for my life, or satisfied with God? When you arrive at "God is good enough for me", you've arrived. Anything else is short. Of course, anything else is also foolish when God is not enough for His people.
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