Be God-Sufficient

Week 44, Friday

Dorothy Patterson

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

The world says that you must believe in yourself, express yourself, and realize your own potential. Such self-reliance will supposedly guarantee you a place in the world. On the other hand, God’s way is for you to come face-to-face with Him. You are reduced, by His very presence, to being “poor in spirit.” Your life ends in the death of your own desires and willfulness; your joy bows to sorrow for your own sinfulness. The power of your being in control is swallowed up in His victory. Death, sorrow, pain, weakness—all these the Savior experienced in His journey to the cross. To merge your life with His, you must drink of the cup of His sufficiency.

Humility, in the biblical sense, is a complete absence of pride and self-reliance. You are nothing in the presence of an awesome God. Any natural position in life, any bestowed powers, and any achieved morality are to be put aside because they in themselves are worthless.

You do not become “poor in spirit” by looking at yourself or by devising any plans of your own, but rather you must look only at God: read His Book (Isaiah 40:8), study His words (2 Timothy 2:15), consider the principles found in Scripture (Psalm 8:3-5; Matthew 6:28-34), and meditate upon His life (Psalm 119:15-16; Philippians 4:8).

You cannot do this or look at Him in this way without feeling in yourself absolute poverty of spirit. Only when you have emptied yourself in this way can you place complete hope in Him. As the beloved hymn says, “Yea, all I need, in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come.”[i]

No one would ever say that the Christian is self-sufficient, but you can say that a woman with Jesus Christ in her heart becomes God-sufficient. In other words, the Christian woman is not concerned about her self-image but rather about the God-image in her life. She must focus on being God-sufficient and not circumstance-conditioned, which puts the emphasis on God’s power rather than on human resourcefulness.

Lord, I put myself and all I have in Your hands; conform me to Your image and let me glorify You. Amen.

[i] Charlotte Elliott, “Just as I Am,” 1834.