SUFFICIENCY
28th Sep 2022
With all the changes going on at a national and international level, it is easy to feel very inadequate. If we are not careful we can be full of fear and uncertainty. We do not have the resources in ourselves to handle life. We need to access the resources of heaven and draw our strength and peace from God.
2 Corinthians 3:5 (ESV) says, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.”
Despite hearing Jesus say, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” the disciples were so full of fear after Jesus’ death that they were hiding away behind locked doors expecting the worse. The resurrected Jesus came into the room ignoring the locked doors and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19)
The circumstances around them had not altered, except that Jesus had totally changed everything when He spoke the words, “Peace be with you!” It is the same for us, we can listen to the news, watch the reports on television and allow fear to grip us, or we can hear the voice of Jesus and be filled with His peace.
Paul was being troubled by the “thorn”, which may well have been persecution or opposition. He cried out for the circumstances to change, but what he received was the voice of God saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Inflation and the energy crisis are causing us to wonder how we are going to survive economically. Psalm 37:25 says, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”
Jesus takes up this same theme in Matthew 6:25, “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” The promise is that God will meet your needs.
2 Corinthians 9:8 really sums it up, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
by Charles Sibthorpe
