Without shocking the weasel out of you, I believe that for many “Christians” and churches, God is not enough. While we openly admit and verbalize that God is enough, we live like He really isn’t. God has a special place in his heart for the Israelite nation and it very evident in scriptures, in both Old and New Testaments. God’s desire has always to be be king of his people (both Jew and Gentile) and be all that they need and want. Nothing illustrates this topic more that the story found in 1 Samuel 8.

God had kept up his side of the bargain to the Israelites by delivering them from bondage and giving to them their promised land. Once they had established themselves in the promised land, they observed something about other nations that was different. God had given them a system of leadership through judges who served God and the people. The judges, according to Judges 2, were “raised up to save the people out of the hand of those who plundered them.” In that same chapter of scripture, it says that God raised up the judges and the judge would save the people from their enemies, but when the judge died, the people would rebel and follow after other gods. This process happened over and over throughout the book of Judges until we get to the book of Samuel.

Samuel was a prophet that presided over Israel. He wasn’t perfect, but he obeyed God. As a matter of fact, scripture tells us that the LORD was with Samuel and none of his words fell to the ground. As Samuel aged to an old man, his sons became judges, corrupt ones. About this time the people began to desire for a king like the other nations that surrounded them. The sad part of this story is that God tells Samuel to appoint a king over the people because they had rejected Him as their king. In other words, they wanted to be like everyone else. God tells them, “I am your King. I am all that you need.” Sadly, they refused to obey the voice of Samuel and said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we may be like all the nations, and our king may judge us, and go out and fight our battles.” Again, it is sad that they had all that they had requested in God, but wanted more.

You see, God was not enough for them. They wanted more when there was no more. As followers of Christ, we too want more. We want what we can see. We want what we don’t need. Whether we want to admit it or not, sometimes for American “Christians” God is not enough for us. We want security. We want programs. We want pastors. We want buildings. We want more. When is God going to be enough for the church in America?

God is all we need now and forever.