All We Ever Need

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26 ESV)

Do you have days where you don’t feel like God is good? Sometimes, you wake up, things hurt, you have a million tasks to do for people that don’t appreciate it anyway, and when you look around, others seem like they’re doing better than you. On those days, it just might not feel like God’s love is really better than life (Psalm 63:3). 

But does that change anything? Does your heart tell you the truth?

I believe everybody has days like these—because I do. And I think even spiritual “giants” like the Apostle Paul did. Romans 7 is packed with woe as Paul agonizes about how he longs to do right but his flesh just doesn’t want to do or to want the right things. Do you feel his pain? 

David certainly does, as we see in Psalm 73 here. He was upset and unsatisfied with God, saying: “… my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. … All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken” (Psalm 73:2-3, 13-14). Did you catch that? He looked around at others’ circumstances, and he looked at his, and his conclusion was simple: life isn’t fair, and God hasn’t been good to him. 

He wanted to worship, but he just wasn’t feeling it. Nothing in his experience seemed to agree with what he was supposed to believe about God. And I get that!

I can’t tell you how many days I’ve woken up just irritated. Sometimes it’s mild, remembering that I have things to do the second I wake up—too many, oftentimes. And that can distract me from connecting with God in prayer. But other times, it’s absolutely overwhelming. I can feel as though the whole world is against me and I’m a complete failure, when nothing has even happened and hardly any thoughts have yet crossed my mind. Suddenly everything and everyone seems like a threat. It’s times like these I need to slow down and remember the truth. 

God is our portion. He is what we get. As David eventually declared when he finally entered the sanctuary and met with God—and everything else faded away—God is all we ever need. He does love us as much as His own Son, and we are part of Him now. He is more and better and richer than our wildest dreams! He will give us a kingdom and an inheritance against which all else in existence pales by comparison. And there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from His love. 

We are new creations because Jesus crucified our old lives with Him and raised us up in Him. We’re blameless because Jesus paid the price for our sins and nailed the record against us to the cross. We belong to the royal family of God, and we will reign with Him for eternity with far more than we ever had here. We have received far, far more than we deserve and will get more than we can imagine by the time it’s all done. 

So what if it doesn’t feel like these things are true? Let God be true and every man a liar! Reality does not bow to our feelings, and we can tell our feelings to submit to the King. Better yet, we can throw those things right at Him, and He’ll catch them and remake them—and us—because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). Next time Satan or our flesh tells us God isn’t enough—let’s declare the reality of who God is and what He’s done and let thankfulness be our guide. 

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Scripture is quoted from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.