Insufficiency and Sufficiency

Insufficiency and Sufficiency (2 Corinthians 3:5)

Sometimes we men who fight for freedom get full of ourselves. Things go well, and we think we have got all situations covered. We begin to think that we are sufficient in ourselves. To think that way puts us in a dangerous position.

I believe most of us who read Freedom Fighter want to know victory in our lives. A hunger for God's power and righteousness exists deep in our souls. Somewhere along the way, we got the idea that we can achieve that power and righteousness through keeping the rules and doing all the right things. Just one thing is wrong with that kind of thinking. It is completely inconsistent with biblical instruction.

Consider God's Word: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. The Apostle, without any cause for misunderstanding, lets us know that we do not have the "right stuff." He reminds us that at our best we are fallen, broken people. We just do not have it within us to be and/or do those things God calls us to do.

It is for that reason that Jesus told us He would send the "Helper." (John 16:7) I've been preaching a series of messages over the last several weeks that I've called "Life in the Spirit." My study and praying through those messages has reminded me how completely dependent I am on Gods' indwelling Spirit. Only as I yield my life to Him and allow Him to guide and empower me can I live out God's plan for my life. So it is with each one who reads this.

Paul sensed the need to reinforce this thought just a little later in 2 Corinthians. He says We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power of the power may be of God and not of us. God has always protected His glory. He designed us to live for His glory. If we were sufficient in ourselves, we would rob God of that glory. The sooner we learn that, the sooner we begin the journey to genuine victory.

It's pretty simple. We are not sufficient. God is sufficient. When we choose to yield ourselves to His sufficiency and trust that sufficiency, we discover the truth of God's Word and the power of God's Spirit in our lives. Isn't that what all of us want? -- John Strain is our weekend Freedom Fighter contributor and is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Toms River.

God's WORD for YOU: Job 11-13; Acts 9:1-21

Think about this: We can say, "Blessed is night, for it reveals to us the stars." In the same way we can say, "Blessed is sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort."
The floods washed away home and mill, all the poor man had in the world. But as he stood on the scene of his loss, after the water had subsided, broken-hearted and discouraged, he saw something shining in the bank which the waters had washed bare. "It looks like gold," he said. It was gold. The flood which bad beggared him made him rich. So it is oft times in life. Henry Clay (H. C.) Trumbull