A Truth to Believe

What does it mean that God is Self-sufficient?

God is from himself--absolutely independent and completely self-sufficient. For God to be self-sufficient means that he himself is all that he needs. He has no source. He has no need. He has no lack. God exists because he is, and he is sufficient in himself for all things.

Being self-sufficient includes being self-existent. God is not dependent upon creation in anyway nor did he create because he possessed a deficiency. He is qualitatively different than all of creation and yet needs none of it for his existence or nature. God is ultimate power, ultimate goodness, and has ultimate freedom to do as he pleases. God creates, governs, saves, and provides all out of the fullness of his own sufficiency.

God does not need anything or anyone for anything. God himself is the source, creator, and giver of all things––except evil and sin which are contrary to his nature. God lacks nothing but instead his sufficiency is of such degree that he actually overflows with goodness and grace to his creature.

While God did not and does not need creation, God has ordained that it can glorify and bring him joy. God has created us to have meaning to him. He does not need us but chooses to delight in us and create us to bring him joy. He also allows us to work as means in his divine plan throughout redemptive history.

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. (Acts 17:24-25)

Something about Living

Your work isn't your identify. Yet it is an opportunity to glorify God with your vapor of a life.

A Quote

Wherever man may stand, whatever he may do, to whatever he may apply his hand, in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, in the world of art, and science, he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of his God, he is employed in the service of his God, he has strictly to obey his God, and above all, he has to aim at the glory of his God.”

Abraham Kuyper in Lectures on Calvinism

A Resource

If you have ever wondered how you can run a business to the glory of God, then check out Wayne Grudem's book Business for the Glory of God.