Is God Really Sufficient? Is He Enough?
I decided that I might as well try to write and what better way than to do as I had done before when I would write: Find a good Christian book that would give me an eye-opener. Sometimes the eye-opener would come through my Bible reading, but often times it began in a book I was reading. So, why not do like I had always done? I went to the new collection of books I had recently obtained and chose one that I knew would be filled with truths and principles that would speak to my heart.
As I finished my morning devotion time I kept my reading short and just the bare minimum (shameful). I was excited to break into the book (not the Bible – a book) and see what might catch my attention.
With book, Bible, and laptop in tow I settled in ready to write. Opening my book I began reading. I honestly can’t tell you a single word I read on those two pages, because God nudged me as if to say, “So, my Word isn’t enough for you? Not sufficient enough for you? You have to add to it or go there first in order to end up in My Word?” Ouch.
Not to say that those books are wrong -- not at all. They have been used mightily in my life and God has shown me so much through the eyes and words of hearts and hands surrendered to His will and purpose. God has changed my life through the writings of others. I know that many of you could echo the same sentiment. The danger lies in setting aside God’s Word and picking up a book in its place. Used in its proper, God-purposed place, the books (as well as all the other avenues – i.e. conferences, CD’s, counselors . . .) can be used mightily by God in the lives of believers and even non-believers.
Is His Word enough? Is He enough? Do I have to have God plus _______? Do I have to have His Word in my hand in addition to _________? Or could someone take it all away and leave me only His Word and Him and it be enough – even more than enough – it be my all in all – sufficient . . .all-sufficient.
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Not God and _______ or God with the help of ________. God alone created the heaven and the earth. I can barely paint my room by myself, but God created the whole world – heaven and earth. Not only that but He spoke it into existence. He is God alone and a very holy, righteous, mighty, and consuming God.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). He is our foundation. One cannot sustain or last when not founded and established in a life-giving source. Apart from Him, we have and are nothing. Our sufficiency is in Him because He alone is sufficient. We are dependent on Him and without Him we have nothing that will suffice, last, satisfy, or give life. The Bible makes clear that not only did God create all things, but that He sustains all things as well: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, [now notice this last phrase] and by him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28). It is one thing to think about God keeping the planets rotating, or even the atoms of which our bodies are made, rotating; but this verse says that everything about our lives is kept in place by His sustaining power. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” God's sufficiency is great enough to extend to everything that we do. He keeps everything going within our lives, within our activities. God is not some distant being, far off in the universe. He is a God Who is intimately involved in every detail of our lives, in every breath that we take.
I, as a human, am only partly sufficient. If I don't get nourishment, if I don't get rest, if I don't get to recharge my “batteries,” I can't keep going. I am only sufficient to the extent that I have outside resources that refuel and replenish the strength that I have, but God is completely sufficient. He never needs to be refueled or recharged. He never needs help from any outside source whatsoever. John said it best when he recorded the words of Jesus Christ Himself, “For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26). God is self-sustaining and self-sufficient.
In many places in the Scripture He tells us that His sufficiency is aimed directly at you and me. He is sufficient to save us as we come to Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died to pay for the sins that we have committed. If we accept the fact that Christ's sacrifice paid for our sins, as we by faith turn to God with that, God is sufficient to save us. He is able to save those who come to Him through Christ. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him…” (Hebrews 7:25). God is able to keep the faith that we place in Him. Many times, I say, “I don't think I have the faith to go on. I know all of this is true, and I have trusted Christ as my Savior, but I just don't have the faith to believe what God has put before me. I just don't have the faith to claim the promises.” But then I fall on my knees in humility as I find the words in His blessed, living Word: “…I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (II Timothy 1:12).
God is able to keep the faith that we have placed in Him. When you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, God keeps that faith. Even if we are faithless, He abides faithful. Paul wrote this same truth in different words in this passage in II Timothy: “He is able to keep that faith that we have committed to Him.” If you have by faith accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, God has put that in a safety deposit box, and He keeps that faith even if you run out of faith. I love the illustration that of the fact that you may be holding on to God's hand, and that is wonderful, but also God is holding on to your hand. Even if you let your grip go, God does not let His grip go. He is sufficient to keep me – to keep you - in His family.
God is able to deliver His children from any test, trial, or difficulty that may come their way. He allows us to go into some of those difficulties and trials and tests, but He is able to deliver us from them. Sometimes He does not deliver us from them. The young men in the book of Daniel that were placed in the fiery furnace knew that God might choose not to deliver them. They didn't say, “He will deliver,” but they knew that He was able to deliver them. What a wonderful truth that is. God is sufficient to deliver us from any problem that we may have. The book of James, along with several other places in the Bible, tells us that God sometimes allows us to go on through those testings because He has things that we can learn from them that we could not learn any other way, but He is able to deliver. There is nothing so big or terrible that you can get into that God will be stymied and will have to scratch His head about what He is going to do to get you out of it. God is sufficient for every need. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). God is sufficient to take that tough thing that you are going through right now, that disappointing thing, that sad thing, that exciting thing, that challenging thing that you think is beyond your ability, God is able to take that and work it together for good. And oh, how I love and cling to that.
When I turned all of that truth inward and lined it up against the truth and reality of what was blasting through my mind and heart, I realized that I had fooled myself into believing that God isn’t enough. Those are hard words to swallow. To even think for that matter, much less write them and see them and know they came from your flat-out, deepest reality - that His Word is not truly sufficient to deal with my problems. Of course God and His Word can deal with everyone else’s problems. But, it doesn’t speak to my issues, my problems, my sorrows, my trials, my hurts, my relationships, and my situations. I needed God’s Word plus the entire Christian bookstore, sermons, tapes, CD’s, conferences, and counselors. I needed God plus. . .
The truth that God wants for me to believe and claim is this: “The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1) “Nevertheless I am continually with thee: Thou has holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever” (Psalm 73:23-26). “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9-10).
Realizing the lie(s) that I had been revolving around, I stepped back and could see through shame-filled eyes the all-sufficient God and His Word that was and is indeed enough for me. No, I will never fully understand or grasp His amazing, uncomprehendable-sufficiency. How He is perfectly complete within His own being. But I realized that by God’s grace He would become all-sufficient to me when I stepped down off of my pride adorned, self-driven, self-sufficient, going-no-where roller coaster and let God take me in His arms and satisfy and be that all-sufficient Lord He promised to be. It is so different from our human existence, and because it is hard to understand, I have tried to diminish it in any way that I can. I do not like to think about something that can't be put in a box, something that can't be categorized or demonstrated with some mathematical formula, book, or tangible, visible explanation. I had tried filling those voids that He left void on purpose – voids that were God-shaped and could only be filled by Him.
He brought me back to His Word and wrapped me warmly in those words spoken from His heart for me and to me. Words to convict, some to scorn, some to chasten, some to comfort, some to restore, some to lift up, some to break down, some to admonish, and some encourage. He instructs, guides, and heals through that blessed, living Word. The Word from the Heavenly Father is more than enough. It is more than enough for everyone else – it is enough for you and for me. And it is made to be more than enough and all-sufficient by the One Himself Who is all-sufficient and all in all ENOUGH.
“The law of the LORD is perfect [“whole”, “complete” or “perfect”], converting [restoring] the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes [precepts] of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:7-9).
“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
