What do you have that God NEEDS? Nothing. What do you have that God wants? Your heart, your mind, your spirit and your love for Him.

This blog is one in a journey of a Getting to Know God series. The names and attributes of God are adapted from a guide on the Navigators website called 30 Days of Praying the Names and Attributes of God. Today’s blog corresponds with Day 14 – God is Self-Sufficient.

Today our Navigators’ Guide says this: “God is self-sufficient. All things are God’s to give, and all that is given is given by Him. He can receive nothing that He has not already given us.”

Our verses for the day are:
Acts 17:24-28 (NIV)

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Thinking about God being completely self-sufficient takes me to many different deep thoughts on many different subjects, how about you? My first thought is about my “giving” anything to God. Whether it be my time, my money or my talents, they have all been given to me by God in the first place. It makes my mind circle a bit to think about the fact that He gives me many things so that I may give many things back to Him. While I definitely NEED many of things He gives me, He does not NEED anything from me. Rather, He desires me to grow close to Him and one of the ways I do that is by returning the gifts He has given me back to Him.

OK, time for a reality check and confusion check. We cannot possibly understand this “God-logic.” We will not understand the full workings of God’s logic and His economy until we get to Heaven but for now we need only to realize that He loves us as children and He desires our hearts to turn to Him. In fact, He created us to do exactly that. God gives us many blessings even though He knows the risk of those blessings replacing, in our hearts, our need for Him. He knows the risk, yet He gives us abundantly more than we need in so many areas.

If God has blessed you with finances, be careful that you don’t gather comfort from those finances and “build bigger barns to store your goods.” You have been given those finances to help further God’s kingdom in some way. If you don’t know what He wants you to use it for yet, pray for the way.

If God has blessed you with talents, be careful that you don’t puff up with pride and see all your talents as a result of your OWN hard work, etc. You have been given those talents to help further God’s kingdom in some way. If you don’t know what He wants you to use it for yet, pray for the way.

If God has blessed you with an abundance of time (perhaps retirement or the ability to work part-time) be careful not to waste those blessings of hours on worldly pursuits. You have been given that time to help further God’s kingdom in some way. If you don’t know what He wants you to use it for yet, pray for the way.

I guess the bottom line for me today is that God gives us many blessings and desires that His children return some of His gifts to Him purely out of gratefulness for our salvation. That is the greatest gift He has given us which is COMPLETELY undeserved yet it can never be taken away from us. That makes me want to give EVERYTHING back to Him, period.

Blessings and love,
Pamela