Hi. This week, let’s take a peek at the chorus from Jireh.
Jireh, you are enough
Jireh, you are enough
So I will be content, in every circumstance
Jireh, you are enough
Q: Where do we first encounter the name Jehovah-Jireh?
A: Genesis 22.
If you have ever read Genesis 22, you may come away from that passage thinking wow that’s crazy… Here’s the deal….#storytime
After God created Humans, he gave them the choice to follow Him (and trust that he would be enough) or to try to take on the world their own way. Unfortunately for us, our buddies Adam and Eve chose the hard way (relax you would have done the same thing).
Because of this, things went, well, wrong. Humanity was cursed from the moment they ate the fruit (Gen 3). But God had a plan. He did then, and he does now, and He just wants us to trust Him.
That plan involved a Man named Abraham and a promised son named Isaac. See, Abraham and his wife Sarah were, well, old. Their whole life they were unable to have children and that was a bummer for them. Their deepest desire was to just have a child and after decades, still nothing. Isn’t that discouraging?
Then God steps in….I love when this happens.
God speaks to Abraham and tells him that He and Sarah will have a son. And that through that son, his glory, and his (God’s) story would be displayed. At first Sarah literally laughed in disbelief, yet Abraham believed that God would provide. He trusted God and flash forward, Sarah was giving birth to Isaac. It was a miracle. Then God does something crazy. He wants to test Abraham.
He wants to see if, now that he has what he wanted (a son), he would still put God first. So God tells Abraham to go with His son to offer a sacrifice, only, he told Abraham that Isaac was going to be the sacrifice. Now, I don’t know about you – but I think this is like… wild. But Abraham actually TRUSTS God. Abraham trusts God so much, that He actually was willing to sacrifice the thing he wanted most in life to show God that he loved Him. Imagine that. What would that look like in our lives?
So when we sing Jireh, you are enough – It declares a complete trust, complete reliance on God that he will provide for me just what I need when I need it. Even in the things I don’t understand, the things I don’t see, the things that I fear, all of it. It’s saying God, your provision for me is enough. I trust you. I’m going to stop trying to do things my way and I am surrendering to your way, your will, in your time.
So I will be content, In every circumstance, means… in every circumstance. Let’s be real, sometimes this is really, really hard. But honestly, when we think about it, this is so liberating. All we need to do is trust God with every part of our life (not just part of it) and he promises to provide for us. How amazing is that?
And that is exactly what happened for Abraham. Abraham trusted God with his most prized possession – offering his son as a sacrifice back to God and God recognized Abraham’s faith in Him, and provided a ram to sacrifice instead of his son. See, it was all a test. What may God be testing you with? In what situation do you find yourself in that you need to declare God as Jehovah-Jireh? Where do you need to stop striving and start trusting?
We believe that God is enough. We believe that He is provider. We believe that he is Good.
Next week we will look at God’s goodness and see just how he promises to provide for us!
Until then, I hope this helped your understanding of Jireh a little more!
I love you church, have a great week!
– Matt