Insufficient, Yet Sufficient

     “I cannot do this!  It is too great a task?!  How often have the men of God in history quailed before the onset of some great work which God was setting before them.  Moses made every excuse possible at the burning bush as to why he could not be the instrument of Israel’s liberation from Egypt. Jeremiah demurred from understanding the prophet’s office on the basis of his inexperience. Paul enunciates the same view of his own abilities on more than one occasion.  In the text before us, we find him saying what we must say ourselves.  We are in ourselves utterly unequal to the tasks set before us, but God makes us able by His gracious sufficiency which He extends to us.  How often do we feel the weight of our own insufficiency!  We say with Paul, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves.”  Over our own character, spirituality, discernment, and ability we must write, “Insufficient of myself!”

     It is good that we know that, however, because it keeps us humble.  Having faced our insufficiency, we must recognize that God has given us certain tasks to perform.  He wills that we should perform them.  “Wherewith shall I save Israel?” we exclaim, as Gideon did.  Paul had come to the same conclusion to which we must come.  Christ is the source of our sufficiency.  Whatever we ever accomplish will be the direct result of His sufficiency imparted to us.  Knowing Him, and knowing these things, we are confident in the success with which we will be enabled by God, “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament.”

     That He is so able to successfully impart His sufficiency to us encourages us to leave our own Sinai wilderness to undertake the labour to which He calls us in the cosmopolitan Egypt of His appointment.  We will gather the army, lamps, pitchers, and surround the Midianite camp.  We are of ourselves insufficient, but He is more than sufficient.  We shall succeed.

Where the Bush is Burning
Tomm Tice