When you feel like life doesn't give you enough, it's easy to become discouraged by unmet expectations, unanswered prayers, and seasons that don't make sense. In this episode of Living the Selah Life, When Life Doesn't Give You Enough, Kim concludes The Enoughness of God series by sharing how God's presence, grace, and faithfulness remain constant even when life feels lacking.

• Through the stories of Job and Martha, Kim offers biblical encouragement for navigating disappointment with faith and honesty. This episode will remind you that God welcomes your questions, walks with you through every trial, and is able to sustain you with His peace and strength. Even when life feels like it isn't enough, God always is.

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The views expressed are those of the host, Kimberly Lockanor, and are based on personal experience, experience and Biblical insight, not clinical or professional training welcome back to Living the Selah Life, a podcast that invites you to slow down, breathe deep, and reconnect with the presence of God.

I'm your host Kim and this space is for anyone longing to become more familiar with his presence.

Whether you're just discovering what it means to pause with God or you've been walking this path for a while, I am really glad that you're here.

Each episode is an intentional pause, a moment to reflect, realign and remember that God meets us when we create space for Him.

So take a breath.

You are right on time.

Let's live the Selah Life together.

Today we are bringing our three part series on the enoughness of God to a close and I want to say from the very beginning that this episode is one that I have been most careful about because this topic is the hardest one.

In episode 38 we talked about what happens when you do not feel like you're enough and we looked at how your identity in Christ is secure.

In episode 39 we talked about what happens when you do not have enough and we looked at God's provision and the practice of contentment.

Today we are talking about what happens when life itself does not give you enough.

This episode is for the person who has prayed and prayed and the answer has not come.

Or the person who follows God faithfully, or followed God faithfully and still lost something precious or everything precious.

It is for the person who did everything right and still ended up in a place where they never wanted to be.

The person who is carrying disappointment that is so deep that they are not sure that they can talk to God about it honestly without sounding like they do not trust Him.

I want you to know that this is a safe space.

We are going to be honest today and we are going to discover together that God's sufficiency is not proven by giving us everything that we want.

It is proving by being enough for us when we do not get what we want.

So what is the reality of disappointment because life will disappoint?

My spiritual parents used to always say, just keep living.

And I say to you today, if life has not disappointed you, just keep Living plans fall through.

Dreams feel like they're dead.

Prayers feel like they go unanswered.

And we can begin to carry a belief that if God truly loved us, life would not be so hard.

We expect that following him means getting the life we planned.

And when we do not get what we wanted, it is easy to let bitterness convince us that God must not be good.

And even if he is good, he's not good for me or to me.

I say again that God's sufficiency is not proven by giving us everything that we want.

It is proven by being enough for you when you do not get what you want.

Hear me when I say it is proven by him being enough for you when you do not get what you want.

So what are some of the disappointments that we carry?

Because I think one of the loneliest things about deep disappointment is the feeling that no one really understands the specific shape of our pain or the specific manifestation of our pain.

Some of you may be carrying disappointments.

Like I said about prayer.

You pray for a marriage and it has not come.

You pray for a child and your arms are still empty.

Or you pray for healing and the diagnosis has not changed.

Restoration in a relationship the list goes on and on.

Closed doors can be confusing, and prolonged suffering is exhausting in a way that is hard to describe, especially when you have seen others receive the healing that you are still waiting for.

In John, chapter 11, when Jesus arrived after Lazarus died, Martha came to him and said, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

She was not being disrespectful.

She was being honest.

She believed in Jesus, she trusted his power, and she was genuinely disappointed that he had not come sooner.

So she let him know it.

And Jesus did not rebuke her for it.

He wept with her.

He entered into her grief before he did anything else.

And that is who he is.

He is not offended by our honest disappointment.

He enters into it.

When we face disappointment, there's usually a question underneath the grief that we might not always say out loud, but it is there.

Is God enough when I do not get what I want, even better.

Or probably a better, more practical question that we ask.

We're never usually concerned if God can and will do it.

It's always if he can and will do it for me.

If he can and will do it for you.

And these are honest questions.

And I think, in fact, I know that God is big enough to handle them.

Job asked questions like these throughout the book that bears his name.

He was not silent about his pain, he brought it directly to God.

And in Job, chapter 13, verses 15, he said, though he slay me, yet will I hope in Him.

The question is not whether we will feel disappointment, because we will.

The question is, what will we do with it?

Will we let it drive us away from God, or will we bring it to him and let him meet us in it?

I want to be careful here because I do not want to give you a tidy answer to what could very well be a very traumatic reality.

I am not telling you that God being enough means the pain goes away.

It does not always go away quickly.

And I'm not telling you that trusting God means you stop grieving.

Grief is real, and it takes time to overcome.

What I am saying is this.

What makes God enough is not what he gives or withholds.

What makes him enough is who he is.

His presence in the lack is very real.

When you are in the middle of seasons where you did not get what you prayed for, he is there as a present companion, as the one who said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

His character does not change with your circumstances.

He is still good when your life is hard, and he is still faithful when your prayers seem unanswered.

He is still loving when the thing that you wanted most has not come.

His character is not contingent on your experience of it.

His purpose works through pain.

Even in Jesus's life.

Romans chapter 8, verses 28 says that God works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

And that does not mean that everything that happens is good.

It means God is at work in all of it, weaving even the painful threads into something that serves his purpose.

And ultimately, you're good.

And his promise of ultimate restoration is also very real.

There is a day coming when every loss will be restored, every tear will be wiped, and every unanswered prayer will be understood in the light of his perfect plan.

That day is coming.

There's a truth that many people discover in seasons of deep loss and that they only discover in seasons of deep loss.

When you have been stripped of the things that you were counting on, when the provision you expected did not come, when the life you planned fell apart, you find out what is left.

And what is left is God.

And in that place, something absolutely remarkable happens.

You discover that God Himself is the gift.

I always tell him, you are the secret sauce.

Not just the giver of gifts, not just the one who provides things.

He Himself is the treasure.

His presence brings a peace and A joy that circumstances simply cannot provide and cannot take away.

Psalms chapter 16, verse 11 says, in your presence is fullness of joy.

Not in answered prayer, not in fulfilled dreams, not in the life you planned in his presence.

That is where fullness is found.

And Psalms chapter 73, verses 25 and 26 says, whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Love that Scripture.

The psalmist had come to a place where God was enough.

And it wasn't because his life was easy, but because he had found that God was the one thing that could not be taken from him.

The Bible is full of people who found God to be enough in their lack.

And I think that their stories matter a whole bunch because they show us that this is not a theoretical possibility, that it is a lived reality that real people have experienced and are even experiencing today.

Like me.

Paul had a thorn in his flesh.

And we do not know exactly what it was, but we know it was painful and it was persistent.

He prayed three times for God to remove it.

And God did not remove it.

Instead, he said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Paul's response was not bitterness.

He said, therefore most gladly.

I would rather bite, boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

He found God to be enough.

In an unhealed weakness.

Hannah experienced years of barrenness.

She wept before God.

She was misunderstood by the priests who thought she was drunk.

When she was pouring out her heart, she lived with the daily ache of an empty longing.

And yet in 1st Samuel chapter 1, we see her praying, worshiping, and trusting.

She found God's presence before she ever received the promise of a child.

Joseph was thrown into a pit by his brother, sold into slavery, falsely accused.

We all know the story.

And imprisoned at every turn.

The life he might have expected was taken from him.

And Yet Genesis chapter 39, verses 2 says that the Lord was with Joseph.

The Lord was with Joseph.

Even through all the things.

The Lord was with Joseph.

In the pit in the slave quarters, in the prison cell, God was with him, and that presence was enough to sustain him until the day of his restoration.

David hid in caves while being hunted by the king he had faithfully served.

He wrote many of the Psalms from those hiding places.

And in those Psalms we see a man who found God to be his refuge, his fortress, his strong tower, when everything else had been stripped away.

And finally, in Acts, chapter 16, verses 25, Paul and Silas were in prison and at midnight they were singing hymns.

Not because their circumstances were good, because God was present with them and his presence was enough to produce a song in the darkest place.

If you are carrying disappointment today, I want to speak directly to you.

This is not the end of your story.

God wastes nothing.

He is a Redeemer, which means he takes what is broken and makes something new from it.

He takes what is lost and finds a way to restore it, sometimes in this life and always in the life to come.

Let's move on to this week's pause prompts.

And remember, pause prompts are just a chance for us to pause, take inventory of where we are so that we can know where we are going.

Let's go.

Pause Prompt number one what disappointments do you have that you have not fully grieved?

Can you name a time in your life when God's presence was enough?

Even when you did not get the provision or the outcome that you wanted?

How can you hold on to hope while being honest about your disappointment?

And what does it look like to grieve and trust at the same time?

Where do you need to trust God's goodness today in spite of your circumstances?

Is there a specific area where you have been holding back trust?

Because the answer has not come?

Is there any bitterness toward God that you have been holding on to?

If so, can you bring it to him today honestly, the way that Martha did, The way that the Psalmist did?

We will move on to this week's Scripture Spotlight.

And our Scripture spotlight from today comes from Second Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 9.

And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, most gladly I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

My grace is sufficient for you.

God did not say, I will remove the thorn.

He said, my grace is sufficient and sufficient means it is enough.

It is adequate.

It covers what you need.

God's grace is not just forgiveness.

It is sustaining power.

It is the daily supply of everything you need to face what you are facing.

For My strength is made perfect in weakness.

And this is one of the most counterintuitive statements in the Bible.

God's power is displayed best when we are at the end of our own strength.

Our lack becomes the canvas for his provision and our weakness becomes the place where his power is most visible.

And that does not make weakness easy, but it does make it purposeful.

Therefore, most Gladly.

I will rather boast in my infirmities.

Paul chose to embrace his weakness.

And I'm sure it wasn't because he enjoyed suffering, but because he had discovered something in in that weakness that he did not want to lose.

He had found a deeper experience of Christ's power.

He had found that God was enough in the place where Paul was not that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

And I must say that a lot of times when people quote this verse, they leave this in part off about I'd rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

That end part is my favorite part.

When we admit that we are not enough and we do not have enough and life has not given us enough based on how we feel, Christ's power rests on us.

That word rest carries the idea of taking up residence or making a home.

Christ's power makes its home in our weakness.

So have no shame, my friends.

Have no shame.

Let's move on to our Selah moment and prayer.

This is our opportunity to bring our honest grievances to God and find him to be enough.

You can begin by sitting comfortably and taking several slow, deep breaths.

With each breath, release any bitterness or unmet expectations.

And with each inhale, invite the Holy Spirit to fill you with the comforting presence of God.

You just have to be willing to let him in.

Think about the specific disappointments that you are carrying.

Acknowledge the pain before God.

Say, lord, I am hurting because things did not go the way I planned.

I bring my honest grief to you and I trust that you can handle it.

Consider God's unchanging character.

Choose to trust him even when you do not understand what he is doing.

You can say, father, I do not understand my circumstances, but I choose to trust your goodness.

I believe that you are working all things together for my good, even the things that feel like loss.

Bring to mind the areas where you feel the deepest lack.

Speak God's truth over those areas.

Say, your grace is sufficient for me.

Your strength is made perfect in my weakness.

You are enough.

You are my portion forever.

Let us pray.

Father, in the name of Jesus.

Lord, thank you that you are a God who draws near to the brokenhearted.

Thank you that you do not turn away from our pain or our disappointment.

You see every tear.

You know every longing that has gone unmet and you have not forgotten us.

Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, help us to be honest with you about our grief.

Give us the courage to lament the dreams that have died and the prayers that seem unanswered Keep us from falling into bitterness and keep us from the kind of false faith that pretends everything is fine when it is not.

Remind us that your goodness is not defined by our circumstances, but by your unchanging character.

When we are walking through seasons of deep lack, when the healing does not come, when the door remains closed, when the longing remains unmet, be our sustaining grace.

Lord, teach us what it means to find you as our portion.

Help us in discover that when all we have is you, you truly are all we need.

Lord, we ask that you would take our weaknesses and our disappointments and use them to display your strength.

Let your power rest upon us in the places where we are most aware of our own limitations.

Give us the faith to believe that you that you waste nothing, and that your final word is always resurrection.

We ask that you would give the listeners the courage to bring their honest grief to you this week.

Help them to find someone whose life did not go as planned, but who still trusts you and to learn from their example.

May they also become a living example.

Give them the grace to say, God, you are enough, even in the moments when it does not feel true, knowing that the truth does not depend on the feeling.

It is in Jesus name that we pray, and it is so let's lean into to our Selah moment.

Sam.

Well my friends, that is it for today.

Thank you for listening to Living the Selah Life.

If this moment stirs something in your spirit, share it with someone who needs to be reminded to pause.

You can connect with me on Facebook, a Facebook group, not a Facebook page or YouTube or Instagram at Living the Selah Life.

Or you can email me your story or any Selah moment that you want to hear here to Living the Selah Life at Proton.

That's Living the Selah life at Proton.

Me.

May you go from this place rested not just in body but in spirit, carrying the awareness that his presence is always near.

May you be rooted not in the shifting voices of this world, but in the unshakable word of God, the Logos that ground you and the rhema that guides you.

For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And may you keep rising into the life he has designed for you, into purpose, into peace, into the fullness of his calling.

May your life become a living Selah, an intentional pause that reveals his presence.

It is in Jesus name that we pray.

Pray and it is so.

Say love.