Do you feel like you’re missing something?

Just below the surface but constantly there, we often feel as if we should be more, have more, accomplish more, prove more, or get more to show that we are complete. The question, “Am I enough?” echoes through the chambers of our hearts as we face each day.

You hear it in the 15-year-old girl who stares constantly in the mirror, turning her face from side to side, searching desperately for a trace of physical beauty. You hear it in the mom who sees other families on social media and feels she should be doing more. You hear it in the sophomore who pines away in their dorm room, longing for a taste of romantic love. You hear it in the 30-year-old who strives to achieve something and when they do, feels unsatisfied and begins searching for yet another goal, another accomplishment to try to prove that they are enough.

In a thousand ways, the question reverberates through the corridors of our minds: Do I have enough? Am I enough?

Into this constant yearning for more, into this quiet yet pulsing uncertainty, the Bible speaks to us with words of fullness, words of overflowing satisfaction and joy.

For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10)

The Soul-Satisfying Goodness of God is in Jesus

Paul says here that the whole fullness of deity, of God’s essence, dwells in Jesus. This explodes with significance when we stop and consider how the biblical authors, particularly the psalmists, spoke about the essence and presence of God.

In Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy. (Psalm 42:1-2, 43:4)

O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary, beholding Your power and glory. Because Your steadfast love is better than life. (Psalm 63:1-3)

Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26)

For the psalmists, God was the great thing in all of life that brought full enjoyment, deep satisfaction. No one filled their hearts and desires like the goodness of God. And this soul-satisfying goodness of God, Paul tells us, is found in Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.

Jesus Fills Us

And Paul then says that this Jesus, who contains the whole fullness of God, is the one who now has filled us – not will fill or can fill, but has filled us. By being united to Christ in faith, we are filled in Him, this Jesus who is God, the God of greatest, unmatched delight and fullness, who now takes of that fullness and fills us. And because Jesus fills with the fullness of infinite God, we can never soak up enough of Him to saturate our lives. We cannot be filled with the fullness of God and still have space that needs to be filled. Thinking that we could somehow absorb all of the goodness of God in just one life is like thinking we can use a mop and bucket to soak up the Atlantic Ocean.

As we go through life, we are tempted to believe that we are not enough: not pretty enough, successful enough, smart enough, accepted enough, loved enough, religious enough, accomplished enough. But instead of looking to where we fail, we should look to Christ and drink of the river of the delights of God that flow through us in our union with Him.

Drink deeply of Christ, the Living Water, and you will never thirst again.