Sufficient in Christ

Those closest to Jesus our Savior, as He walked the earth said these words--

2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God

They took NO honor, NO glory, NO praise to themselves at all! They did not boast of themselves. They did not tout self sufficiency.  Their sufficiency was of GOD.

They KNEW they were not special, they weren't equipped with some personal uniqueness that enabled them to be used of God. They comprehended that on their own they were nothing. 

We don't like to hear that do we?  People rail against being called nothing.  People rise up and shout their specialness just because they exist. Everyone everywhere wants to believe they are amazing and wonderful just because they live and are a human being.  We want to teach our children that they are wonderful all on their own with all their quirks and such. We want our children to believe in themselves outside of everything else.  We shun being told we are nothing without God. We say it sounds cruel to tell anyone they are nothing. We ALL want to be told we are special.

AND we are ALL special ONLY in that we have the potential to belong to our Savior.  We are special, so incredibly special in Christ that He thought we were worth dying for! He gave up His Spirit form and took on our flesh so He could die for us, that's how special we are to Him.

No one can EVER judge whether a person will accept Christ or not, even the most stout atheist, or devout Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem, Pagan, etc. we cannot say beyond any doubt any of those people will not come to know Christ as their Savior.

So, YES, we must LOVE each other, truly LOVE each other no matter what- literally- no matter what. We must love each other as each of us has the possibility of being God's. We don't love each other because of our kindness, our generosity, our charismatic personalities, or at least we shouldn't love each other because of those things. If we love only those who love us in kind, we truly are not loving as God loves, as God would have us love. Love your enemies, we are told. Do good to those who abuse us, we are told. Yet we have been taught to only LOVE those who love us back in word and deed.

Are we each special in and of ourselves?  If we were, would any of us ever face eternal nothingness? Would any of us face the wrath of God? Would any of us be destroyed completely, burned in the lake of fire until we are nothing, if we had a specialness on our own, would those things happen?  Our God is special, and with HIM in us He makes us special.  And truthfully as already said, we are all special with our potential to be God's.  Without God we are NOTHING.  You don't have to like it, you can hate it in fact, because you are allowed to choose to be God's, never forced.

Our sufficiency, our worth is found in GOD. We are no longer empty husks of human beings when we have God's spirit in us, a new heart, a new spirit.  Yet we can be empty husks of human beings. We can claim self-sufficiency but that is only a lie we tell ourselves. 

We can do all things through CHRIST, as well as the opposite, we do nothing without Christ, nothing of any real worth.

We are sufficient in CHRIST!

Please, Lord, please be our sufficiency, we know we are nothing without YOU and YOUR LOVE.  Bless us, keep us, in YOU always! Through Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior!

Amen.