God's Self-sufficiancy - Our Need for Him

Acts 17:24–25

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (ESV)

Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

Unlike God, we have needs and concerns that we can’t fill ourselves. God promises to provide for all our needs; we need to seek his face and pursue sanctification.

“Our all-sufficient God assures us that if we take care of His spiritual purposes such as the pursuit of sanctification (Heb. 12:14), He will provide for all our needs—from daily food and clothes to our deepest feelings of inadequacy (Matt. 6:25–34; Phil. 4:6–7). We gain this conviction through a right belief about God’s attributes which undergird His sufficiency for us. Tozer recognized this fact when he wrote,

“The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long.”” - Chuck Swindoll (https://www.preceptaustin.org/notes_on_attributes_of_god_2b#self-sufficient)

What is worship to our God who needs nothing from us?

“We can also see the impact of God’s self-sufficiency in worship. When we gather in worship each Lord’s Day, we don’t come bringing God something that he doesn’t already have. We are not making up for his perceived neediness. Rather, we come in worship as those like sheep—needy, hungry, dependent, and oftentimes wayward. - Brian Cosby (https://gospelreformation.net/gods-self-sufficiency/

Jen Wilkin writes about unmasking our own self-sufficiency. “The marks of self-sufficiency include: prayerlessness, forgetfulness, anger in trial, and lack of conviction of personal sin. Sanctification is the process of learning increasing dependence, not autonomy.”