Our Sufficiency Comes from God
By: Anne Peterson
Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God - 2 Corinthians 3:5
We live in a world overflowing with information. If you don’t know something you can Google it, and you’ll have the information you need within seconds. But sometimes we can depend on the information we get and lean on it.
At other times we’ve gone through circumstances, learned a few things and when a similar situation arises, we lean on our experiences.
2 Corinthians 3:5 reminds us we are not sufficient of ourselves but instead, our sufficiency is of God.
The world tells us God helps those who help themselves. Which is not found in scripture anywhere.
Or it says, pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps.
The world tells us, You’ve got this!
And then life happens, and we soon discover we are helpless. And often those feelings of helplessness lead us to feeling hopeless. But the good news is we have a loving Father who did not leave us alone, no matter what we’re going through. He makes us sufficient for whatever we face.
We read the story of Peter and how he got out of the boat and walked on the water to come to Jesus in Matthew 14. Can you imagine what that must have felt like? And Peter did fine with his water walking until he took his eyes off the Lord. He noticed the wind, the waves and he immediately went down. What I love most about this passage is how quickly Jesus reached out and saved him. There was no chastening. There was no shaming. Peter called and Jesus answered. And it’s the same for us. God makes us sufficient for whatever we face. And when we fail, he picks us up.
We don’t have control over many of the circumstances in our lives. But we do have God’s hand guiding us, providing for us and giving us the ability to work through and overcome whatever our circumstances may be. He makes us sufficient.
Some things will seem monumental. Sometimes we’ll be fearful. But as we learn to lean on God and what He tells us in his Word, we’ll remember we’re not alone. God is close enough to collect our tears. And when we make it through to the other side, we can look back and say, “we were not sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency was from God.”
His Hand
I don’t know what tomorrow holds,
or what I’ll have to face.
But I know God is well aware,
and He will give me grace.
And when I start to worry,
Or I don’t understand,
I’ll call upon my Jesus,
and I’ll take his outstretched hand.
- Anne Peterson
Anne Peterson is a regular contributor to Crosswalk. Anne is a poet, speaker, published author of 15 books, including her recent book, Always There: Finding God’s Comfort Through Loss. Anne has also written He Whispers: Poetic talks with God. Sign up for anne’s newsletter at www.annepeterson.com and receive a free eBook. Or connect with her on Facebook.
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