Now for a break from NA posts...

So I'm going through my email and trying to catch up with life post-NA. I came across an email from a friend who sent me the link to Nancy Leigh DeMoss' "Revive Our Hearts" radio broadcast titled "A Picture of Contentment." This broadcast is part of a series Nancy is doing titled "Cultivating a Contented Heart." You can read the transcript here.

Nancy spent the first part of the broadcast sharing the life of Hannah Whitall Smith as a picture of contentment. I am unfamiliar with Hannah, but Nancy gave enough of a description to make me interested in knowing more about her. Hannah's life, in short, was one of heartache and disappointments yet she went on to write books to speak about the goodness of God. Nancy states, "In the midst of all that she experienced, Hannah never let go of her conviction that God is good. She just clung to that tenaciously. She saw earthly problems and disappointments as what she called God's chariots, sent to take our souls to the very heights of victory for which we have been longing and praying."

Hannah's last book, "The God of All Comfort" ends with the chapter titled "God is Enough." Nancy shares three passages that were really amazing and full of truth. They make me want to put the book on my wishlist. Here they are:

1. "No soul can be really at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us."

2. "Feelings may change and will change with our changing circumstances. Promises may seem to fail. Everything that we have believed in or depended upon may seem to be swept away, and only God is left. Just God. Simply and only God."

And finally,
3. "Nothing can separate you from God's love. God is enough for time. God is enough for eternity. God is enough."

Nancy ends sharing about Hannah's story with this challenging question:
"The question is: "Do we really believe that [God is enough] or do we believe that we need God plus something or someone else, that we need God plus a bigger house; we need God plus children who are walking with God; we need God plus a husband; we need God plus a husband who is a spiritual leader?" Hannah Whitall Smith, having experienced so many disappointments from an earthly point of view, came to the conclusion that God is enough."

May God give me grace to keep learning and experiencing that he IS enough no matter what and how long a season I may find myself in.

Toodles,