When I think of self-sufficiency in my own life, I automatically think of that as a good thing, a celebrated thing by society, and something on which I can instantly pride myself. However, God is truly the only self-sufficient One. We are finite, created beings, and severely limited by our needs. Our needs drive us to action, sometimes that's a good thing and many times that can be a bad thing.
For me, I get a kick on being able to do it all. I selfishly love that people might think, "Wow, she's got it going on." But the truth is, I don't; and I'm not sure I have really ever fooled anyone except myself. Certainly I have never fooled God. I often times pride myself on being able to do most things without asking for help, but it leaves me drained and overwhelmed. That festers into an unpleasant demeanor and a bitter spirit. I definitely do not have it going on.
"God created us needy, that in our need we might turn to the Source of all that is needful, acknowledge our need, and worship." #NoneLikeHim— Renee Young (@noodlenay42) January 18, 2017
"We are not needy because of sin, we are needy by divine design."
None Like Him, page 63
And finally, I am okay with that reality. Are you?
We were created to be dependent on the One who created us and on other believers. Only God, the uncreated One; the One who has always been, is incapable of being dependent on anything he creates.
It would be like me saying because I painted a picture, I need it to complete me or help me survive in some fashion. It would be like me saying that the picture is free to do what it pleases: it can hang itself on the wall, it can choose the frame it wants to be put in to, it can copy itself, it can choose its own value. That's insane, or is it? Of course that picture would need me to do those things for it.
Same is true for God. We need Him, but he certainly needs us not. He created us for his good pleasure, but not to sustain him or fill some need. He is already self-sustaining, self-sufficient. It is who he has always been, and will always be.
God created us. We are God's picture.
Maybe a hard and challenging pill to swallow for a finite, created being like us to try and understand the creation of the infinite, uncreated Father. But let that cause you to fall into a deeper worship of God, the one who created you for his pleasure, who delights in you.
"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.
Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being;' as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring'."
Acts 17:24-28
we humans must confess "i am because he is." only God can say "i am who I AM." @jenniferwilkin #nonelikehim— Renee Young (@noodlenay42) January 17, 2017
Jen provides a self-evaluation if you think you may be attempting a self-sufficient life without dependence on Christ or fellow believers:
- Prayerlessness
- Forgetfulness
- Anger in trial
- Lack of conviction of personal sin
- Avoidance of Christian community
- Concealment
- Lack of accountability
- Lack of humility
- Exhaustion
So basically if I check myself with this list, I've been living in self-sufficient sin. Time to repent and seek the Lord. This is causing me to worship my self-sufficient, self-sustaining, all-knowing Creator even more.
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Where are you at in the battle of self-sufficiency?
— Jen Wilkin (@jenniferwilkin) May 11, 2016
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