God Isn’t Good Enough

He’s just plain good

Do you pray for something from God but settle for “good enough” or stop short of asking for the whole enchilada? Do you know that Jesus isn’t a halfway kind of God? He doesn’t dabble in just “good enough” — He excels in more than enough! Actually, He’s kind of a perfectionist when it comes to blessing His people.

Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open. (James 1:6–8, MSG)

James reminds us of this when he tells us to expect nothing less than God’s best when we pray or we might end up with nothing. I surmise that is why some of us (all of us at times) are tentative with our requests. We don’t want to be disappointed or seem presumptuous so we dip our toes into the prayer river. But God is always in the deep end and Jesus reminds us of how we are to pray:

Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better? (Matthew 7:7–12, MSG)

We might be conditioned to not expect too much from life, but that’s where we short-circuit God’s work in our lives.

Show me one example in the Bible where Jesus gave someone half a healing, or a little food, or temporary forgiveness. I was reminded of this on Easter Sunday while watching the on-stage production, Jesus, from Sight and Sound Theaters.

Highlights of this abundance message shone through when Jesus redeemed Mary Magdalene from a life of sin and disgrace, when He fully restored the man with the legion of demons, and as the disciple at the feeding of the 5,000 exclaimed, “We have more than enough food! Look at these baskets overflowing!”

Here is our case study for today: the healing of the blind man in Mark 8.

Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. Taking him by the hand, he led him out of the village. He put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him, and asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up. “I see men. They look like walking trees.” So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized that he had recovered perfect sight, saw everything in bright, twenty-twenty focus. (Mark 8:22–26, MSG)

He’s not a halfway kind of God

When God is about to do something in your life, He’s not going to do it halfway, or so-so, or just good enough. He’s not going to stop and say, How about this…can you live with this much healing? Or Well, that’s good enough, after all, it could be worse.

But, how often do we say or think things like this? I guess I could live with this. How often do we settle for less than God’s best for us?

How many times have you prayed this way? God, if you could just _______, that would be great. Of course, He can just, but where does He say to pray for “just this” or “just that”?

Mark, chapters 6 and 8, both tell the stories of Jesus feeding the thousands of men, women, and children. In both stories, they “ate their fill” and there were baskets leftover. And we are not talking the size of baskets you and I place the corn muffins in for the dinner table. The size of the baskets referred to here could have been one of two types the writers referred to. (Source)

• kophinos, was a type of wicker basket, made of twigs or branches, it would have been a smaller basket that could be carried on the back like a knapsack or bookbag. Still considerably larger than our bread bowl for the table.
• spuris, was a reed basket, sort of like a hamper, sometimes large enough to hold a man. It was much larger than the kophinos. This is the same size basket that was used to let Paul down from the wall at Damascus according to Luke. (Acts 9:25)

When Jesus changed the water to wine at the wedding feast, it was the best wine and He didn’t just create enough to get the hosts through the rest of the evening. Nope — the servants were instructed to fill six large stone jars with water. Each jar would have held 20–30 gallons of water. All told, Jesus created 120–180 gallons of wine; about 680 liters. (Source)

He is generous beyond measure

It’s just the way God is–generous beyond measure. You and I? We probably would have created just enough fish and loaves for everyone to have a snack, to tide them over until they got home. Wine? I’m sure I would have just created enough to finish out the evening, and certainly not the best wine — after all the Bible says the guests were already feeling pretty good so they wouldn’t have known the difference. But Jesus would have. You see, when He puts His signature on something, He doesn’t sign off on half-baked, good enough, let’s-just-squeak-by goods.

He will always complete what He starts and make it wonderfully whole and perfect.

Can you stop and think for a moment that He wants that for you? He wants you to ask Him for wholeness and more than enough.

“My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he’s listening. And if we’re confident that he’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours (1 John 5:14–15 MSG)

You can triumph over huge obstacles

The following story has always seemed odd to me and I have, admittedly, stumbled over what Jesus says here. I suspect you might be in the same boat.

Early the next morning Jesus was returning to the city. He was hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree alongside the road, he approached it anticipating a breakfast of figs. When he got to the tree, there was nothing but fig leaves. He said, “No more figs from this tree — ever!” The fig tree withered on the spot, a dry stick. The disciples saw it happen. They rubbed their eyes, saying, “Did we really see this? A leafy tree one minute, a dry stick the next?”

But Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Yes — and if you embrace this kingdom life and don’t doubt God, you’ll not only do minor feats like I did to the fig tree, but also triumph over huge obstacles. This mountain, for instance, you’ll tell, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it will jump. Absolutely everything, ranging from small to large, as you make it a part of your believing prayer, gets included as you lay hold of God.” (Matthew 21:18–22, MSG)

I usually draw a line through the mountain jumping in the lake part because I think this is where I stumble. Does He mean this literally or is He talking metaphorically about big problems in our lives? If we look at the rest of these verses — it seems clearer to me: “triumph over huge obstacles”, “absolutely everything, ranging from small to large”. He’s making the point here that He considered withering the fig tree a trivial matter while his disciples were wowed over this feat.

He wanted them (and us today) to understand that when His power is enacted through faith and prayer, our big problems are not too big. We should come to Him, in faith, with the minor things and the overwhelming burdens as well. He’s bigger than them all!

I’ll draw your attention to another story of healing: the woman with the issue of blood. Once the woman was healed, Jesus said to her,

“You took a risk trusting me and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!” (Matthew 9:22, MSG)

Do you realize trusting God is a risk? But the payoff! Oh, the payoff! His answer to her: “You’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed.”

Don’t settle for “good enough”

My husband had suffered from back and leg pain for almost a decade. Much like the woman with the issue of blood, he had been to doctor after doctor, been subjected to test after test and given all kinds of medicine and treatment that did not work. He was as desperate as the woman in Matthew 9. He had no quality of life and it was impacting his mental health and our family’s emotional well-being.

When he finally found a physical therapist that promised to help him, he told her he would be happy to “just” get some relief. He didn’t expect her to heal him, he just wanted to feel a bit better and be able to sleep at night — that would be good enough for him. She quickly set him straight and informed him that she did not make people “just” a little bit better, that if they did what she said and followed her treatment plan they got completely better. Healed and whole! Sound familiar?

It took him some time to believe for complete healing, but with each treatment he improved, and he placed his trust in her wholeheartedly and did exactly what he was told. In six months his herniated discs were repaired and he was whole again — living a completely normal life!

I had suffered from migraines all of my adult life — nearly 30 years — and, like the woman in the story above, I had tried everything. You name it and I had tried it. To no avail. In fact, they were getting worse — more frequent and more intense. They were debilitating my life.

I had one last card to play: acupuncture. I went, trembling, like the woman who approached Jesus, afraid to believe in case it didn’t work and yet wanting to believe so desperately that when the acupuncturist told me that she had complete confidence she could get rid of the migraines, I cried.

Of course, like my husband, I said something like, I would ‘just’ be happy if I got them less frequently or if they were manageable. Did you catch the “just” again? That’s like saying, I would be happy if just two rattlesnakes per month crawled in my bed instead of eight. What? But that’s where my faith was at the time. She admonished me and said we would get rid of them completely! I grasped on to her faith until I was able to find my own.

Sometimes you have to cling to someone else’s faith to get that vision of beyond “just”. What are you in need of that you can’t seem to get beyond “just”? How can I help you move that mountain? ~ Mary

This story is published in Koinonia — stories by Christians to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family, and fun.

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