“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” II Corinthians 3:5 (NKJV)

If you describe your life accomplishments, attributes, and abilities with a rationale that requires an over abundance of personal pronouns, there is a very good possibility that you have not been true to yourself. In fact, Jesus characterized a certain rich man in one of His more notable parables who was misguided in his own self-sufficiency as a fool. “But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?” “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:20-21 (NKJV) Within the context of this parable, the rich man did not mention God once. He used 11 personal pronouns to describe his life as he saw it and all the things that he had acquired only to discover that his own sufficiency was insufficient when paralleled with the sufficiency of God.

When the Apostle Paul penned these poignant and equally powerful words in our devotional passage, he had great opportunity for his self-perceptions to be skewed and self serving concerning his own status and accomplishments. He was gifted, gregarious, and graced with pedigree, drive, ambition and eloquence. Scripture bears witness quite well to these attributes of Paul. “Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is of the law, blameless.” Philippians 3:5-6 (NKJV) Yet Paul was not oblivious to where and to whom his sufficiency was ascribed to. His sufficiency or “ability and competency” did not find its origins in him. All of his knowledge, all his holiness, all his accomplishments, and all his power were from God and God alone.

We are often erroneously taught that our sufficiency is predicated on our educational pursuits, our business acumen, our networking expertise, or our level or degree of financial accomplishment. This teaching then produces an attitude that “empowerment and achievement" can be wrought without the all encompassing, all powerful sufficiency of God. Don’t be swept into this theology of misconception. We are not sufficient in ourselves. We have absolutely nothing that even comes close to qualifying us to make that claim. The point here is a simple one. “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.” Psalm 24:1 (NKJV) Unless our sufficiency can surpass the sufficiency of Almighty God we are hopelessly and tragically lost in the insufficiency of our self proclaimed sufficiency. That is not a good place to be.

We have nothing apart from the sufficiency that only God can give. When we realize that and trust Him to provide for us, we can then find rest. At a time when there is so much uncertainty in the world in which we live one thing that is eternally certain is that God is not only our sufficiency He is also the sustainer of that sufficiency. Job’s friend Zophar had this to say about the man who is consumed in his own insufficient sufficiency. “Because he knows no quietness in his heart, he will not save anything he desires. Nothing is left for him to eat; therefore his well-being will not last. In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress; every hand of misery will be against him. Job 20:20-22 (NKJV)