SELF-SUFFICIENCY
God’s first
great design in all our trouble is that we might let go of self-confidence.
When we do that, there is a temporary sense of falling. But by faith in God’s
mercy, we land, infinitely more secure, in the arms of our Father, who is
utterly in control at the brink of life and death.
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, Bethlehem
Baptist Church, 2002, p. 141.
A cry for
help from the heart of a childlike believer is sweet praise in the ears of God.
Nothing exalts Him more than the collapse of self-reliance which issues in
passionate prayer for help. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver
you, and you shall glorify me” (Ps. 50:15). Prayer is the translation into a
thousand different words of a single sentence: “Apart from me [Christ] you can
do nothing” (John 15:5).
John Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, Bethlehem
Baptist Church, 2002, p. 55.
To suppose
that whatever God requireth of us that we have power
of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none
effect.
John Owen
The great
mistake made by most of the Lord’s people is in hoping to discover in
themselves that which is to be found in Christ alone.
The Doctrine of Sanctification, Bible Truth
Depot, 1955, p. 200.
P.T. Forsyth
once said, "The worst sin is prayerlessness." We usually think of murder, adultery, or
theft as among the worst. But the root
of all sin is self-sufficiency, independence from God. When we fail to wait prayerfully for God's
guidance and strength, we are saying, with our actions if not our lips, that we
do not need Him. How much of our service
is characterized by "going it alone?"
Charles Hummel
It is
significant that we are described as being slightly lower than the angels
rather than being slightly higher than the beasts. Our place and privilege is
to be a mediating figure, but to be one who looks up rather than down.
When we sever the tie that binds us to God and try to cast off God's rule, we
do not rise up to take God's place, as we desire to do, but rather sink to a
more bestial level. In fact, we come to think of ourselves as beasts
("the naked ape") or, even worse, as machines.
James Montgomery Boice
Taken from "Foundations of the
Christian Faith-Book I" by James Montgomery Boice, page 155.
(c)1986 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA,
Revised edition. Used by permission of
InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=991.
For men have
no taste for (God’s power) till they are convinced of their need of it and they
immediately forget its value unless they are conditionally reminded by
awareness of their own weakness.
Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, 2
Corinthians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Eerdmans, www.eerdmans.com, 1964, p. 161.
The
difference between grace and works is the difference between worship and
idolatry. The man inebriated with the
thought that all he has is Yahweh's gift finds himself repeatedly on his knees,
adoring, thanking, praising. But if we
do not grasp grace we plummet into idolatry, for that is the inevitable
corollary of self-sufficiency.
1 Samuel, Focus, 1998, p. 318.
Are you
glorying in your graces or your talents? Are you proud of yourself, that you
have had holy postures and sweet experiences?... Your
flaunting poppies of self-conceit will be pulled up by the roots, your mushroom
graces will wither in the burning heat, and your self-sufficiency shall become
as straw for the manure pile. If we forget to live at the foot of the cross in
deepest lowliness of spirit, God won’t forget to make us feel the pain of His
rod.
C.H. Spurgeon
Morning
and Evening, Evening: March 6.
Self-sufficiency
is Satan’s net, wherein he catches men, like poor silly fish, and does destroy
them. Be not self-sufficient. Think yourselves nothing, for you are nothing,
and live by God’s help. The way to grow strong in Christ is to become weak in yourself. God pours no power into man’s heart till man’s
power is all poured out. Live, then, daily, a life of dependence on the grace
of God. Do not set yourself up as if you want an independent gentleman; do not
start in your own concerns as if you could do all things yourself; but live
always trusting in God. You have as much need to trust Him now as ever you have;
for, mark this, although you would have been damned without Christ, at first, you
will be damned without Christ now, unless He still keeps you.
C.H. Spurgeon
Indwelling Sin, Sermon
from Job 40:3-4.
When a man
thinks he has got a good deal of strength, and is self-confident, you may look
for his downfall. It may be years before it comes to light, but it is already
commenced.
D.L. Moody
Christian History, n. 25.