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As we continue today speaking about living with limitations for the glory of God, one of the first things that I learned through my limitations is how much I need Jesus. I already knew how much I needed Jesus for my salvation. It was clear to me that I couldn't save myself and could not offer sufficient atonement for my sins. However, our reliance on Jesus does not stop there. I think that many Christians, myself included, know this to be true, but our lives actually prove that we don't always believe it.
Maybe you read your Bible and pray every morning or evening. Maybe you even confess your need for God in prayer and ask for His help for the day. But after you close the pages of your Bible and begin your to-do list for the day, do you ever find yourself relying on your own strength from that point on? ...relying on your own wisdom, expertise, experience, knowledge, power, and intuition? This tendency to rely on self is a widespread plague in the Church.
Jesus says,
"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
(John 15:5)
In context, Jesus is teaching about good works and how good works are a result of abiding in Jesus. We can do nothing good without Him. Self-sufficiency, therefore, is actually nothing but an illusion and a complete misunderstanding of the sovereignty of God. The reality is, you are not self-sufficient, and even if you feel you are or try to be, there is nothing that you can do apart from God. He puts the breath in your lungs, and He holds your life in His hands.
Through my limitations, God has made me aware of my need for Him in every little aspect of life. In this way, feeling the reality of your own limitations is a gift. Once we realize that we desperately need God, we can enjoy the freedom of not feeling that we have to do it all ourselves. We can live in the freedom of the finished work of Christ, knowing that we need Him and that He more than supplies our needs.
We always sin when we try to place ourselves in a seat only meant for God. There are some attributes of God that we can reflect as His image bearers, called His "communicable attributes". Some examples are love, mercy, and justice. Then there are attributes of God that He alone possesses, called His "incommunicable attributes". Some examples of these are that He is all-knowing and unchanging. One of the other many incommunicable attributes of God that we see in the Scriptures is that God is self-sufficient. He indeed is the only One who is! Only He has all that He needs in and of Himself. Only He needs no help. Only He lacks nothing.
My limitations help me come to terms with my own needs. They remind me that I am not God. And seeing my own needs leads me to praise the God who needs nothing and who meets all of my needs. God used my diagnosis to increase my dependence on Him which transformed many areas of my life, even many that are unrelated to my illness. Learning to depend more on God set me free in so many ways.
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