Sufficiency – Pathway Journey

There is a great story of provision found in the Old Testament (2 Kings 4:1-7). A woman’s husband had died. He was in the group of prophets led by the Prophet Elisha. The woman had no time to grieve over the death of her husband because he had a debt that was due. She had no money. The creditor was coming to take her two sons as slaves for the payment of the debt. The ancients lived in a very cruel and unforgiving world.

Her situation was very severe. Her husband had died. Her sons were going to be taken as slaves. She was left with no support and no family. A widow during that time with no son was destined for a life of abject poverty.

She went to Elisha for help. “So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil” (2 Kings 4:2 NKJV).

I often advocate for a balanced approach to life. People get a little dizzy when their lives get out of balance. Humans have a tendency to lean to the extremes. We can obsess over anything.

I have been pondering about being sufficient in God versus self-sufficiency. As Christians, there needs to be an overriding reliance upon God without becoming child-beggars. The things we can do with our hands and minds are only possible because of God. He gives us health, strength, knowledge, and the ability to reason and create.

When my children were small, they loved the frozen waffles Eggo®. At first, I cut them up with a fork and knife. Then I tried to teach them to use the utensils, but they were not coordinated enough. So, I made them tear them into pieces with their hands before we poured on the syrup. Just a wee lesson on being self-sufficient.

Good parents teach their children to grow up to be responsible adults with reasonable self-sufficiency.

God loves to see His children solve problems, build things, create, paint beautiful pictures, and play beautiful music. He is glorified when we see our own work and give Him the thanks for the ability we have. I’m sure your picture is on God’s refrigerator, but He has one of my coloring sheets on it.

God created us to create. God worked six days to make a place for us and to make us in His image. An aspect of that image is to create as He created. He made everything from nothing. We get to re-purpose pallets into all sorts of cool things.

When we were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, God told mankind that man would eat by the sufficiency of his work. “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:19 NKJV).

“Much food is in the fallow [un-cultivated] ground of the poor” (Proverbs 13:23 NKJV). Many folks are sitting on potential.

Yes, our sufficiency is in God. Our next breath is in His hand. Our next logical thought is in His hand. Our very lives and our next day are in His hand. Yet, He loves to see His children be self-sufficient in life to the degree of being productive adults.

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5 NKJV).

Make God smile, get up and go do something!

Yours on the Journey,
Harry L. Whitt

You might enjoy a related blog I wrote years ago, “I Shine My Own Shoes.” You can read it here.

Category: Sufficiency

Fill Up the Vessels

Balancing God and Self-Sufficiency