He is My Portion

By Laura Bagby
CBN.com Producer

CBN.com –

You are my portion, O LORD; I have promised to obey your words (Psalm 119:57, NIV).

One day recently, while enjoying the sunset around the lake where I live, the concept of the Lord being my portion came to mind. I mulled it over, as I often do with just about any new bit of information, and I began to ask the question why is the term "portion" used? Why not the whole pie, the whole piece of cake, the whole enchilada? Why is God only a small part of that whole, a "portion," as it says in this passage and in other references throughout Scripture?

And then it hit me: because we as humans can't handle the whole glory of God. We can't even handle half. That's why we fall on our faces or get slain in the Spirit when God shows up. In His presence we are overwhelmed.

We also can't handle the whole story. Often I ask the Lord to tell me what will happen in my future: whom I will marry, what ministry God will use me in. Fortunately, God doesn't tell me the whole story at once, only the parts He desires to tell, at the time He desires to reveal them to me. That way I don't run the other way or hide shamefully in the corner when He reveals the hard stuff to me or tells me about things He wants me to do that either scare me or confuse me. (Remember Jonah?)

So, we get a portion. God knows what we can handle. God says He would not give us more than we could bear -- even in cases of giving us too much of a good thing. If we try to eat a whole pie all at once, chances are we are going to get sick, and what tasted good at the beginning isn't so good anymore. But if we take our piece of God every day, just like the Israelites gathered Manna from heaven, it will taste good. Then we can appreciate the good taste of the Lord.

There is something more: A portion must be renewed. It satisfies for a time, but if we do not re-energize our spirits and souls with another piece of Him, we will be spiritually hungry. God wants us dependent on Him, dependent on sustenance from His lips and from His Word.

I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him" (Lamentations 3:23-25, NIV).