One question God has hammered into my soul this year is this: Is Christ enough? Specifically, if God doesn't do _________, can I still be satisfied in Christ? Honestly, the answer doesn't come easily, and it reaches to the very core of what we believe.
I've realized through waiting and suffering that God, like an all-wise, all-loving Father, will often withhold things, even good things, when they become God-things. When the focus of our worship shifts from the Giver to the gifts, from the Healer to the healing, God will realign our focus to save our souls and preserve His glory.
This question must be asked in the midst of suffering, not after the fact: Today, when you don't have the very thing you've prayed, longed, yearned for isn't here, can you find joy in Christ? Is the Gospel sufficient? The answer to this question reveals the object of your worship.
Paul challenges the Church with an eternal perspective that bleeds from the very core of the Gospel: "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 2:16-18).
