Lesson 145 – When the Spirit Is Sufficient

2 Corinthians 3:4-6

"And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

I like this promise. With the Spirit's touch, we're made sufficient ministers of the new covenant of grace by faith through Jesus Christ. For without this touch, we're not sufficient within ourselves as spokesman for our Lord.

Every pastor knows they are not sufficient for the task before them. We're not sufficient in loving others with the love of the Savior, for humanity and all its vices get in the way. We're not sufficient to rightly preach the gospel, knowing our own attitudes and inadequacies obscure the message. We're not sufficient to lead the church to follow after God's will, for we find we're often off course in our own lives. We're not sufficient to model faith in action, for even daily we stumble in our own beliefs. Most of us spend time wondering if we somehow missed God's will when we agreed to take on our current church assignments, keeping an eye out as to what might be next.

So what then are we do in the face of all these insufficiencies?

We are to rely on the Spirit to give us sufficiency, not born of ourselves, but of God. You see, our Lord not only delights in using our broken lives for his glory, this is his specialty. What better way is there for God to be recognized for his grace than to see it in action in the life of an insufficient servant? When something is done through a broken life, you just can't help but praise the Lord for anointing.

I'm always shocked when asked to fill out a recommendation for a parishioner to attend seminary. Quite frankly, if the person already excels at everything laid out in the many pages of questions presented for response, they wouldn't need seminary at all! And guess what, none of us are sufficient in these things. We need every opportunity to experience the Spirit's touch to be made sufficient for God's glory. For the young preacher, that means going to seminary, even before they've got their religious act together! The Spirit's touch is for those who need sufficiency, not for those already in the zone for the Lord!

For the church, this means we need to learn to turn over our inadequacies before the Savior, pleading for a touch of the Spirit to cover our shortfalls for God's glory. This means a heart of brokenness which rightly agrees with our Lord that we can do no things rightly in the kingdom without the Spirit.

LORD JESUS

Lord, I thank you for specializing in covering our inadequacies. In my life, may your Spirit come through, removing any opportunity for my own glory, giving it all to Christ. Amen.