Enough.

Helen Roseveare is a very practical & down to earth writer.  She is so honest about her failings in her Christian walk it becomes easy to admit to yours.  In this book she has challenged me again. The general thesis is that Christ is enough to fulfil all our needs.  Sounds obvious and I'm sure we all know the theory and the scripture texts to prove it.  But do we really live it out?  Really?  Honestly? 
What about all those 'respectable sins' - worry, perfectionism, that ever-so-small feeling of discontent, the grumbling about the weather, impatience, moral superiority - we may talk about them as little weaknesses or failings but they are certainly not very Christ-like. How longsuffering our Lord is!  Do we really rely on Him to know what is for our real good? 
What about that sneaky 'Jesus... plus'?  If we could just be successful in this situation, if only God would provide a spouse/a new house, if only those around me would respect me more, life would be so much better.  Since when was Jesus and Him alone not enough for our complete happiness? 'The joy of the Lord is your strength' (Nehemiah 8:10).
These 'not enough' errors that Helen talks about are so subtle, but ring horribly true. Suddenly I have become more aware of far too many of them tucked away in my own heart where no-one would necessarily see them - except a Holy God of course.  This is very humbling and could lead to feelings of despair of never being good enough - but Helen deals with this too.  Indeed we fall far short of pleasing our Heavenly Father, but the death of Christ is enough to cover all our sins.  Enough.
This is a book that I found searching and profitable.  It's only small and takes less than an hour to read through.  Buy it and digest.  In fact don't bother buying it - the copy I picked off the shelf in the shop has since had tea spilt on it (an over-enthusiastic little helper!) so I'm happy to give it away free. All you need to do is 'like' us on our facebook page (or get a friend to like us if you don't have a facebook account), then let me have your address & its yours for keeps!
Lorna
Enough.  by Helen Roseveare, published by Christian Focus, £2.99