When Insufficiency is Good!

When Insufficiency Is Good!

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency if from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5)

Yesterday we heard Jeremiah tell us that we don't have it within us to direct our own paths. The Lord drove that home to me earlier this week in my regular Bible reading. In His good grace, He taught me the same thing later in the week. He added some encouragement to the instruction, too.

The Apostle Paul takes Jeremiah's position on our human abilities. We aren't sufficient in ourselves to accomplish one single thing God has for us. The teaching is consistent through God's Word. We cannot do God's work in our own strength or our own wisdom.

Many of us get frustrated by pursuing freedom on our own. We figure out that it doesn't work, but we're not always sure of the next step. We began to sense futility because life doesn't work like we think it should. Sometimes, it seems easier to give up than keep trying.

That's why Paul's encouragement in this verse is so important. While we're not sufficient in ourselves, the sufficiency we need is available.
Every man who walks with Jesus discovers hope in the last phrase of 2 Corinthians 3:5. In our relationship with God we have every sufficiency we need to become everything God has designed us to be. Nothing is lacking!

The lesson is simple, but it's not always easy to learn. Men don't enjoy acknowledging their inabilities and insufficiencies. We're supposed to handle anything that comes our way. It's hard to admit that we can't. There's a problem, though. Until we make that admission we'll never discover God's sufficiency in our lives.

The blessing of this little verse is life-changing. Choosing to abandon our sufficiency, which is really insufficiency, for God's complete sufficiency is the first step to freedom and hope. Throw the futility of self-sufficiency out of your life today. Choose, today, to live in God's sufficiency. - Pastor John Strain is Senior Pastor First Baptist of Toms River

Think About This: The beginning, the middle, and end of your course must be dissatisfaction with self, and satisfaction with Christ. Be content to be satisfied with faith's glorious object, and let faith itself be forgotten. Faith, however perfect, has nothing to give you. It points you to Jesus. It bids you look away from itself to Him. It bids you look away from itself to Him. It says, "Christ is all." It bids you look to him who says, "Look upon me;" who says, "Fear not, I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore." Horatius Bonar