{"id":2453,"date":"2012-01-24T03:50:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T10:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/?p=2453"},"modified":"2024-03-26T12:35:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:35:57","slug":"my-inadequacy-gods-adequacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2012\/01\/24\/my-inadequacy-gods-adequacy\/","title":{"rendered":"My Inadequacy, God's Adequacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Every Monday morning, the Blue Letter Bible staff convenes to discuss the week’s agenda and pray for the ministry. We typically begin this weekly time together by reading\u2014out loud\u2014one of the daily devotionals that are available at the Blue Letter Bible website<\/a>. Yesterday, we read from Pastor Bob Hoekstra’s Day By Day By Grace<\/a><\/em>. The staff was particularly blessed by the day’s entry, so I thought it would be great to share it with you today.<\/p>\n

It is a helpful reminder that the whole of the Christian’s life and ministry is grace. The grace of God is not merely for the wonderful gift of salvation, but also for our sanctification and consequent glorification. It is not that God does the work of saving, and then we take over after that. It is His grace through and through!<\/p>\n

Not<\/strong>\u00a0that we are\u00a0sufficient<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0ourselves<\/strong>\u00a0to think of\u00a0anything<\/strong>\u00a0as being\u00a0from ourselves<\/strong>, but\u00a0our sufficiency<\/strong>\u00a0is\u00a0from God<\/strong>, who also made us sufficient as\u00a0ministers<\/strong>\u00a0of the\u00a0new covenant<\/strong>,\u00a0not\u00a0<\/strong>of the\u00a0letter<\/strong>\u00a0but of the\u00a0Spirit<\/strong>; for the\u00a0letter kills<\/strong>, but the\u00a0Spirit<\/strong>\u00a0gives\u00a0life<\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0(<\/span>2 Corinthians 3:5-6<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

We who follow the Lord Jesus Christ are\u00a0“ministers<\/strong>\u00a0of the\u00a0new covenant<\/strong>.”<\/em>\u00a0The term\u00a0“minister<\/strong>“<\/em>\u00a0means\u00a0servant<\/strong>. The phrase\u00a0“new covenant<\/strong>“<\/em>\u00a0speaks of relating to God\u00a0by grace<\/strong>. Thus, we are those who\u00a0serve God<\/strong>\u00a0by the\u00a0resources<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0His grace<\/strong>. Our day by day lives, lived in service of the Lord God Almighty, are to be developed by the grace of God at work in us. What is involved in this biblical, heavenly approach to life here on earth?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0first<\/strong>\u00a0issue pertains to\u00a0our inadequacy<\/strong>.\u00a0“Not<\/strong>\u00a0that we are sufficient<\/strong>\u00a0of ourselves to think of\u00a0anything<\/strong>\u00a0as being\u00a0from ourselves<\/strong>.”\u00a0<\/em>So often we overlook our personal insufficiency or try to convince ourselves that we can become sufficient with just a little more time, effort, or preparation. This approach is in direct disagreement with the Lord. God wants us to agree with Him.<\/p>\n

Even when we begin to face our spiritual inability to produce the kind of life God is looking for, we easily underestimate the extent of our deficiency. We may think that we are just not able to produce\u00a0as much as<\/strong>\u00a0God desires to see in our lives. The Lord has a more radical viewpoint. He says that we are not able to supply\u00a0“anything<\/strong>“<\/em>\u00a0that He wants to see. Again, God wants us to agree with Him.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0second<\/strong>\u00a0issue pertains to\u00a0God’s adequacy<\/strong>.\u00a0“Our sufficiency is\u00a0from God<\/strong><\/em>.“<\/em>\u00a0The sufficient resources for living the Christian life are to be found\u00a0in God alone<\/strong>. We are to be the\u00a0recipients<\/strong>\u00a0of God’s grace, that is, His fully adequate supply. We are\u00a0not<\/strong>\u00a0to think we are the\u00a0manufacturers<\/strong>\u00a0of that grace.\u00a0God<\/strong>\u00a0is our\u00a0source<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0all<\/strong>\u00a0that is needed for\u00a0godly living<\/strong>. Once more, God wants us to agree with Him.<\/p>\n

The difference between living by\u00a0God’s<\/strong>\u00a0supply or by\u00a0our own<\/strong>\u00a0resources is a “life<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0death<\/strong>” matter.\u00a0“The letter\u00a0kills<\/strong>, but the Spirit gives\u00a0life<\/strong>.”<\/em>Attempting to live the Christian life by\u00a0our<\/strong>\u00a0capabilities will eventually leave us exhausted, discouraged, condemned. Whereas,\u00a0depending\u00a0<\/strong>upon the\u00a0Spirit<\/strong>\u00a0of God to supply the\u00a0abundant grace<\/strong>\u00a0of God leaves us\u00a0strengthened<\/strong>,\u00a0encouraged<\/strong>, and\u00a0comforted<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lord God of all grace, I humbly admit that I have often held a perspective so different from Yours on this subject of sufficiency. I have repeatedly behaved as though the Christian life depended upon what I could do from my own resources. Lord, this has always resulted in spiritual deadness. Please teach me to trust in Your Holy Spirit to bring forth into my experience the full sufficiency of Your immeasurable grace, in Jesus’ name, Amen.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every Monday morning, the Blue Letter Bible staff convenes to discuss the week’s agenda and pray for the ministry. We typically begin this weekly time together by reading\u2014out loud\u2014one of the daily devotionals that are available at the Blue Letter Bible website. Yesterday, we read from Pastor Bob Hoekstra’s Day By Day By Grace. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":2454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-misc","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9306,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions\/9306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}