“Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
And you will delight in the richest of fare.”
-Isaiah 55:2 (NIV)
The Greek word translated as sufficient in the New Testament is arkeō, which conveys both the objective reality of having “what we need” as well as the more subjective experience of feeling “satisfied” or “content.” God’s sufficiency is closely connected to God’s abundance as well as God’s nurture.
Over and over Scripture shows that we can trust God to satisfy all of our needs, trust that God’s care will be sufficient for us. Yet the very idea of sufficient is almost impossible to identify in our society of excess. We live in a world driven by an insatiable appetite for more. The constant stimulation, distraction, production, and consumption in our lives create a continual sense of scarcity.
When we are unable to understand what is actually enough for us, we will never truly experience the satisfaction, rest, and contentment that come from the God who is sufficient.
THE PATH – PRACTICES IN NOTICING
Learning to trust God’s sufficiency is at the heart of the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness. The commandment to practice Sabbath—a day of rest, celebration, and delight each week—was given to remember God’s sufficiency. Author Wayne Muller writes:
“Sabbath time can be a revolutionary challenge to the violence of overwork, mindless accumulation, and the endless multiplication of desires, responsibilities, and accomplishments. Sabbath is a way of being in time where we remember who we are, remember what we know, and taste the gifts of spirit and eternity…
‘Remember the Sabbath’ means ‘Remember that everything you have received is a blessing. Remember to delight in your life, in the fruits of your labor. Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of it.’”
(excerpt from Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives)
Since Sabbath can easily become another “thing to do” or tangled up with legalistic questions about what is and isn’t “allowed,” we are not going to jump into the fullness of this practice in a week. Instead, you are invited to simply stop for a few moments each day as you seek to enter into the heart of Sabbath: reorienting yourself to the God who is enough.
PRACTICE PERSONALLY
- Every day, stop what you are doing to simply be still and fully present for five minutes with no distractions.
- Take deep breaths and be where your feet are.* Notice what it feels like to be you, alive in a world that you did not create and cannot sustain. Give thanks “for the wonder” of it. *Refrain from the song “Centering Prayer” by The Porter’s Gate, which could be a beautiful companion this week.
PRACTICE COMMUNALLY & WITH CHILDREN
- Sabbath is a time of remembering, celebrating, and delighting in the lives God has given us. Hosting a dinner, organizing a game night, meeting for a picnic, going for a hike…how might you gather with your people to delight, celebrate, and reaffirm the truth that God is enough?
- With children, have a conversation about what it would look like to set aside some amount of time in the next week to rest, play, and celebrate God. This doesn’t have to be a full day–it could be an hour or a meal or even part of the day. The heart of this is to step back from the cycle of constant motion and consumption to rest and delight in each other and the life God has given you.