Just

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence; so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

My high school English teacher was a very proper lady who strictly abided by the laws of grammar, sentence structure, and pronunciation. We called her “Miss Ann”. Two of her pet peeves were the pronunciation of the word just and the word get. I can still hear her saying, “The word is Just, not jest; and the word is Get, not git.”

Randy and I, both being from the Southern parts of the country, are gifted with the southern dialect and accent; however, because of Miss Ann, I learned correct pronunciations!! Randy must not have had the same instruction! During Randy’s sermons if the words Just or Get came out of his mouth, and they came out as jest and git, (as they sometimes did) the hair on the back of my neck would stand straight up! Even though I was dealing with pronunciation, the bigger picture here is how we can use the word just totally out of context and use it to limit God.

The word Just can be used as an adjective or an adverb. If it’s used as an adjective, it means “based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair”. For example, that law is just. If it’s used as an adverb it means, “exactly” or “very recently.” For example, I just got home.

Lately, the word just has taken up residence in many prayers that are offered to God. Some people begin their prayers with, “We just come to you today, Lord, or We just pray that You would…” Those are called Just prayers, and they unknowingly limit God. What exactly does it mean? Does it mean we just thought of You, God, or does it mean that we hope because of this prayer that You’ll be just to us? Maybe its just a way to add drama to a prayer or put it into more common language. No matter the reason, it demonstrates a lack of faith and confidence in approaching the throne of God even though it’s meant to sound humble.

We should all have confidence in knowing that if we ask anything in His name and abide in His will, He hears us. If we know that He hears us, then, we should know that all we have asked is being done. He doesn’t need to be limited.

I think using the word just in a different way would apply to these times. When I was growing up, and we sat around our table for supper, Mama would say, “Did you get enough? Daddy would usually reply, “Just enough.” It means sufficient or exactly. I like that for us today. God gives us just enough love, just enough joy, just enough power, and just enough hope to sustain us. If we believe it, then, He will take if from there and give us just enough mercy, just enough grace, and just enough love.

The beautiful anthem, In This Very Room says it best, and if we substitute the word just for the word ‘quite’ in the song, I think it shows us the perfect way to use that word. Think of the room as your heart, your home, your church, your life, or your world. The lyrics (after taking license to change one word) are: In this very room, there’s just enough love for all of us; In this very room, there’s just enough joy for all of us; And there’s just enough hope, and just enough power to take away any gloom; for Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room. Ron and Carol Harris

Jesus is in this very world, and He offers us just enough.