The Self Sufficient Eternal God

    There was this boy who was playing outside one day. He was throwing his ball out in the back yard. It just so happened that this boy had thrown a little too hard and the ball landed on top of the roof of his home. The ball rolled down the roof and the boy was hoping that the ball would just simply fall down. Unfortunately however the ball got stuck in the gutter. 

    Well this was a real problem for the boy and he began to think about what he could do to fix this situation and get his ball back. He looked around and saw a large branch from a near by tree and He thought that he might be able to use it to push the ball off. Sadly the branch did not quite reach the ball. 

    Next the boy thought about the large ladder in his fathers garage. "Surely it is tall enough for me to use to climb up on the roof and retrieve my ball. 

    So off the boy goes into the garage to retrieve the ladder. The boy struggled under its weight but he managed to drag the large ladder out of the garage as he headed toward the house. 

    Fortunately the boys father saw his young son struggling and fighting trying to drag this large ladder to the house. The father came over to the boy and asked what his son was doing. 

    The Father than smiled and told the boy that he would get the ball down for him. He took the ladder and effortlessly moved the ladder to the exact spot where the ball was. He climbed up the ladder and retrieved the ball for his son. 

    This story really does highlight an important truth that many of us need to learn and relearn. It highlights a lesson that is true not just for that boy but for all of us. That lesson is this; All of us need help from time to time. 

    Everyone of us at one time or another needed some help. When you were a baby, you relied on your parents to feed you, clean you and cloth you. When you got older you needed to learn to read and write. So you needed to rely on a teacher to teach you those things so you would have an education. When you became an adult you needed a job, so you maybe needed to learn a skill, or a trade and you had to have on the job training to help you know what you needed to be done. No matter how independent you think you are, no matter how self sufficient you believe yourself to be. There was and will always be times in your life when you need to rely on someone else for one thing or another. 

    While this is certainly true for you and I. This is most defiantly not the case when it comes to God. God is indeed self sufficient. There is not one thing or being that God needs. There is not one thing that God is lacking or is in short demand of. He is at all times compete and self reliant. 

     The reason for this is that God has always exited. God has neither beginning or end, He never had an origin story. There was never a time in history where God did not exist. There is not one thing that God does not know, that He does not control, and that is beyond his reach. Because God is the creator of both heaven and earth, then there is nothing in heaven or on earth that He is needing, or has to have. Listen to what Paul says about God in Romans 11: 36;

 “From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever"

    I say all that to say this. Sometimes we can have the misconception that some how God needs us. That sometimes things won't get done if we don't do it. We can sometimes have the mind set that we are somehow so important to God. 

    Sometimes we try to bargain  with God when hard times comes in our lives. We say things like this "God if you will do this or that, then I will get saved."  "God if you will answer this prayer, I will get my life strait." "Lord if you will do this for me today, I will go to church and serve you" 

    No matter how spiritual these things may sound the truth is that it reeks of pridefulness and a complete ignorance of who God is. When people do this they are trying to bargain with God with things that God doesn't even need. You see while God wants you to be saved, God does not need you to be saved, you need that. Your the one who needs to get your life right. You are the one who needs to go to church. You see God may want you to do those things but God is not needing you to do those things. 

    Sometimes we as Christians can have the false notion that God needs us to share the gospel. We can have the view point that if we don't do this ministry then God's work won't be accomplished. We sometimes think that we are more important than we really are. 

    We need to understand that serving God, preaching the gospel, and worshiping Him. These are things that God needs, these are things that God deserves. He deserves our service, He deserves our worship, and He deserves us telling others about all that He has done, namely His provision of salvation.

    We need to see these things a privileges. God does not need us to do anything for Him. He is more than capable of reaching the world with the gospel without you. He is able to do everything He wants to do with our without you. It is a privilege that from God that He uses us to do these things. Sharing the gospel, serving God by serving others, and being active in worship are all privileges from God.  

    So my encouragement to you is that we don't take these privileges for granted. Understand that God wants you to be saved, and its you that needs to be saved. God wants you to serve Him by serving others, and you are the one who will be blessed by doing it. God wants you to worship Him this week, and it is you that needs to take sometime out of your day to do it. God wants you to share the gospel, and you are who will have the joy of being used by God to share the good news with those who need it to be saved.

Take some time to watch this small video devotion that talks even more about the self sufficient God we serve.