I am Totally Self-Sufficient!

You know the one thing that we want seems to be self-sufficiency.  We do not want to have to depend upon anyone else.  We seem to hate the idea of needing someone or something.  As I watch TV or a movie I so often see people striving for this goal of financial independence because the will make life so much easier.  As I talk to people it seems like that "raise" or "a few more hours" will be all I need to "get ahead".

• No one LIKES the idea of being forced to depend upon another person.  
• No one LIKES the fact that we need something that we cannot provide for ourselves.  
• No one LIKES the truth that even when someone feels like they reach that point -

(you know, the point where I have all the money I need, a large savings account for a buffer, the cars I WANT, the vacation dreams coming true, the house paid off, the investments for the future, the technology I desire, the food on the table and now worries about where anything comes from) - that point...

 NO ONE WANTS TO FACE THE TRUTH THAT IF THEY REACH THAT POINT - THEY ARE STILL NOT SATISFIED!

Why?  Because we are chasing the wrong thing!  No one can ever be self-sufficient.  It is not possible.
Oops... one exception:

Today's Name of God... El Shaddai.

• El - "The one who comes before", "to be strong" (this Hebrew word describes One who is The Strong One)  That is a great start to a name!  
• Shaddai - this comes from the root words "sha" and "dai".   "Sha" meaning "the one who" and "dai" meaning "is sufficient"

Put it together - God is El Shaddai - He is the One who comes before all else and is the Strong One that is sufficient.  

I love that we can just say the phrase and realize that maybe something is missing on the end... sufficient for what.  

Truthfully, it is open-ended.  Sufficient FOR everything! Sufficient IN everything!  

• El Shaddai needs NO ONE!  
• El Shaddai wants for nothing!
• El Shaddai is self-sufficient!
• El Shaddai has no NEED that He cannot meet on His own!

As I read in the book of Job this morning, I was struck by the strength of Job's trust in God and the admission that God is in control.  He is the one who "gives and takes away" but regardless of the condition he was in Job says "Blessed be the name of the Lord."  

Here is a man that saw God in the right way and KNEW that if his trust was in the self-sufficient strong God of the universe then his current condition could be endured since his trust was not in himself, his own sufficiency or his own power and possessions (which were all stripped away).  

Job had every opportunity to say that he was self-sufficient and yet he was considered a righteous man that feared God and avoided evil in every area of his life.  He never placed his trust in what he had or who he was but rather he gave it all to The Strong One Who Is Sufficient!

 I know people at Osceola Grace that know God in this way.  They depend upon Him each minute of every day to make it through.  They do not place their trust in people, family, possession, wealth, position or religion but only in Jesus Christ!

Colossians 1:16-17 (NIV) For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Stop depending upon your own ability to be sufficient and admit that you are not!  Only God.  El Shaddai!