What more could you ask for?

What more could you ask for? Have you ever heard that question or asked it of yourself?

Those that are born again by the Spirit of God have already received all the blessings that they could imagine—and so much more. We love to think of God’s blessings in quantifiable terms—a new house, a new car, a new relationship, a better job, or a better wage. 

There’s nothing wrong with those I don’t believe. But I’m drawn to the Apostle Paul’s words in the first chapter of Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” 

Ponder that for just a moment. We are already blessed with all the spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. 

Succinctly—He is enough. 

The yearning for more and the constant effort that we exert to obtain more flies in the face of this divine declaration.  

Often it is because we are not truly content with who Christ is. Or perhaps we’re ignorant to just Who He is. 

Scripture is replete with His promises and their fulfillment. Too often we are negligent of His Word and His Work. I don’t mean the extra graces that He so abundantly pours down on our lives. We are cared for by Him “who daily loadeth us with benefits…”.  While too often blind to those benefits, the greater danger is not seeing the Benefactor. We are conditioned to look for the latest and greatest and have the ‘what-have-you-done-for-me-lately’ mentality so needed to get along, or better yet, to get ahead in the tyranny of more. When it comes to resting contented in Christ we find it difficult to rest and doubly so to be content. We have trusted Him with our soul yet we demur at His gentle promises made over millennia and kept for eternity. We’re okay with letting Him be our Savior but not Lord and preeminent. We like the perks, we don’t always like the plan. 

But what if the plan was that we had nothing? What if the plan was fraught with inexplicable pain? What if the plan involved nothing more than just having Jesus? There’s plenty of biblical and contemporary precedent. We see His material blessing as an unspoken fringe benefit that comes with the territory. 

But does it?

Hebrews 11 speaks of faith, so much so that it’s often called “The Hall of Faith”. While the beginning of the chapter abounds with men and women quantifiably blessed with extra graces, the latter verse speaks of a different group. 

And others…

There was no promise of material blessing. There was no expectation of tangible benefit. Rather, what they passed in this life would be considered a disgrace to many contemporary Christians today. They had a child-like faith that looked only to Christ as satisfaction. That was all that they could claim. That was all they wanted. 

What more could they ask for? They had all they needed.