Do you believe that you are “up to the task?” Are you convinced that you can live the Christian life? Having been a believer for quite some time, and having received appropriate training and acquired considerable knowledge, especially of God’s Word and of spiritual matters, do you feel you are ready for just about anything Satan might throw at you?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above rhetorical questions, you would do well to note that you are a candidate for eventual spiritual meltdown.
“What?” your rejoinder might be. “Me, a candidate for spiritual meltdown? No way! I am a serious student of scriptures, of theology and human complexities, and I am ready for just about any possible situation in ministry or life experiences. Bring it on!”
Well, I doubt anyone reading this post is so brash as to admit, “That’s me!” You probably know by now that I am about ready to affirm—with scriptural, Pauline support—that no person can live the Christian life, apart from the way Paul said that he lived it: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20) There is not a Christian alive today who is able to live the Christian life apart from the indwelling, moment-by-moment enabling of Christ through surrender to His Holy Spirit. Apart from Christ living His life through you, you are doomed to failure.
If there is an ounce of self-sufficiency in you, deceiving you into thinking that you are up to the task before you, then beware. There is not one good thing in our flesh, Paul exclaimed in Romans 7:18. To do daily tasks, even ministry, in the power of the flesh, can only result in defeat.
Our sufficiency is of God! And when we come to realize that, then we allow God to demonstrate His all-sufficiency. His grace is sufficient, Paul reminds us. (II Cor. 12:9)
After a half-century of preaching and teaching God’s Word, of pastoring one of His choice congregations, I am not sufficient to preach one more message. I now preach regularly in a small church in Noblesville, Indiana, on an interim basis. I have “barrels” full of messages to draw upon, outlines and manuscripts bulging in file-folders. If I were so foolish as to rely upon this experience, or upon these past resources, approaching the pulpit on any Lord’s Day with the confidence that yesterday’s blessings were enough to propel me through today’s needs, I would fall flat upon my face, disappointing God, His Spirit, the congregation waiting to hear a fresh word from God, and, finally, myself (and Ellen, too!).
This is not to say that all past experience must go out the window. I treasure lessons learned, messages received from the study of His Word, outlines and manuscripts that have been used to discharge a life-long ministry. What I am saying is that if I should ever come to the place where I am just depending on these tools to take me through another assignment, then Christ is not living His life through me, and I am ministering in the flesh—in which there is no good thing!
No, I am not sufficient to preach another sermon, in and of myself. I am not sufficient to pastor any church; to be the head of my home, to tithe, pray, counsel, or live another day as a Christian.
But I thank God for His sufficiency, and that through my weakness He is pleased to make known His strength!
In Exodus 36, Moses received offerings, free-will offerings of the people, every morning, with which the tabernacle was to be furnished. In time, Moses had to issue a proclamation that nothing more be brought. There was more than enough. “For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.”
It’s good to know that He has all we need—and more—to serve Him and to discharge our duties. Yes, sometimes the task seems overwhelming. Maybe you are a caregiver for some loved one—day in and day out, month upon month. You are literally worn out, and you know that in yourself there are no more resources. But, as the meal in the widow’s barrel was never exhausted even though it was apparently depleted, so your supply is always sufficient for the day at hand as you trust Him moment by moment. You cannot think about tomorrow, for that seems an impossibility with the strength you have at the end of today. But your sufficiency is of God, and you trust that when tomorrow comes the supply will be there.
The children of Israel wore the same shoes for 40 years, and they did not wear out. So also in His sufficiency, He will provide our every need. Praise God for that never-ending supply of grace which, like the loaves and fishes, never seems to run out regardless of the huge demands! Who is sufficient for these things? (II Cor. 2:16) God is! And our sufficiency—to live the Christian life, with all of its apparent impossibilities—must come from Him and Him alone. To attempt to live the life for Christ without the “Christ in me, the hope of glory” mindset and surrender, is to set one’s self up for spiritual meltdown. Walk by faith—day by day, moment by moment—knowing and never forgetting that “Our sufficiency is of God!”
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” (2 Cor.3:5)
YOU and GOD 