Reject the Self-Sufficiency Infection

ByMelanie Newton Colossians | Healthy Living
Reject the self-sufficiency infection

Have you been taught from girlhood to stand on your own two feet and that you don’t need anyone’s help to be successful? Do you believe that if you cannot be self-supporting and self-rescuing, then you are a weak woman? You might have the “Self-Sufficiency” infection. This is post #6 in our Healthy Living series from Colossians. In this article, we will see how you can reject the “Self-Sufficiency” infection and stay spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our  Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon:

What is the Self-Sufficiency infection?

If you have grown up in western culture, and are less than 60 years old, you have been taught from girlhood to stand on your own two feet and that you don’t need anyone’s help to be successful. Anyone who cannot be self-supporting and self-rescuing is considered weak.

The Self-Sufficiency infection tries to tell you that you can be good on your own. You can stand strong on your own. You can take complete care of yourself. You don’t need to depend on anyone or anything else to be successful in life. Strong, successful women must be self-sufficient.

Consider the areas of your life where you are infected by self-sufficiency. Generally, it is in your areas of strength—your skills and abilities. You go about your business, doing things that seemed to work in the past expecting them to keep on going your way.

But what if something happens beyond your control that keeps you from being successful without help? You might be left with a sense of failure. Can anyone really be totally isolated from needing the help of others during their lifetime? I think not. So what we are being taught is an illusion.

You may remember Yoda from the Star Wars movies. He told the young Luke Skywalker, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Then, you must learn a new way. That is also true for us. We must reject the Self-Sufficiency infection and learn a new way.

Christianity is Christ in you.

Jesus Christ laid down his life for you so that he could give his life to you so that he could live his life through you.” That is the gospel! (Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ)

Christianity is about Christ. It is about being saved by Him and reconciled to God through Him. You are placed under Christ’s authority and protection as He is Lord over all. And it is about Jesus Christ coming to live inside of you. This is the wonderful revealed mystery of God that Paul described as “Christ in you.”

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

“Christ in you” is the life of Christ living in you and through you.

Jesus promised that God would give the Holy Spirit to us to be with us and in us forever. As the Holy Spirit indwells you, He gives you the life of Christ and unites you to Christ. Paul described this in Romans chapter 6.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5)

The word “united’ means to be “fused” with Christ. The Spirit fuses you with Christ so that “Christ in you” is a fact of your new existence. It happens at the moment of salvation and lasts forever.

  • Christ in you is your power to live a life that pleases God.
  • Christ in you is your only hope for glory. Christ in you is how you grow to full maturity as a believer.
  • Christ in you is how to stay united in love with other believers.
  • Christ in you is how to have your hearts satisfied with everything you receive for life and godliness through all His God-fullness that is now in you.
  • Christ in you is the only way you can overflow with thankfulness.

All those marvelous treasures that Paul described in Colossians 1 and 2 are yours because the Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord over all is in you. That’s pretty high on the wow factor! And Christ in you will teach you how to live dependently on God more than on yourself.

Christ in you teaches you how to live dependently on God more than on yourself.

In His humanity, Jesus demonstrated for us the way we should live in dependence on God. He was doing the work of God when He showed compassion and kindness and when He was teaching truth to people. Jesus sought to please God the Father—not Himself—with His life. Jesus demonstrated to anyone watching or listening what it was like to live the kind of life that God designed us to live.

Then, Jesus laid down HIs life for you so that He could give His life to you so that He could live that same kind of life through you. But many Christians do not enjoy this kind of Christ-directed life because they have a lack of understanding of two vital truths:

  • Vital truth #1: Christ’s finished work on the cross to secure our complete acceptance before God.
  • Vital truth #2: “Christ in you” as the dynamic of daily Christian living.

Both of those are completely opposite of self-sufficiency. We will cover Truth #1 Christ’s finished work on the cross in the next post. For now, let us focus on “Christ in you” as the dynamic of daily Christian living.

“Christ in you” as the dynamic of daily Christian living.

Consider a baby in the womb. The baby and mother are separate but the baby is dependent on the mother for life and nourishment. The mother could live apart from the baby. The baby cannot live apart from the mother. Because of its dependent life, a baby in the womb could say, “For me, to live is Mom.” In the same way, we can say, “For me, to live is Christ.”

To live dependently on Christ is relying on His power in you more than on yourself to achieve the purposes of God in your life. To reject the self-sufficiency infection, you must learn dependent living.

Paul described it this way:

But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9)

Reject self-sufficiency. Accept God-dependency. But what does this God-dependency look like?

What does this God-dependency look like?

Are we as Christians supposed to stay like babies not doing anything for ourselves? No! Does it mean we are supposed to just lie back and let anything happen to us? Not that, either. Does it mean we are not supposed to use our skills, talents, advantages, and opportunities to be the best we can be? Definitely not that!

This is what God-dependency means:

  • God wants you to become a God-dependent woman who will grow and mature in your thinking and behavior.
  • God wants you to give to Him all your skills, talents, advantages, and opportunities and use them for His glory.
  • God wants you to follow His leading and guidance.
  • God wants you to submit your strengths and your weaknesses to Him for His purposes in your life.

All of those things are useful to Him.

Here is what I figured out several years ago from preparing our The God-Dependent Woman study of  2 Corinthians. Dependent living is how God grows His children.

Human parents rear their children to be less dependent on them and more independent. But God grows His children to be less independent of Him and more dependent on Him.

Wow! That is so opposite of what we are taught in our culture. And rightly so when it comes to parenting. We rejoice when our children get out on their own and can pay for their own housing, food, transportation, and insurance. That is raising responsible adults.

But God allows things into our lives that force us to live dependently on Him. And whether we like it or not, whatever He brings into our lives that makes us more dependent upon Him is good for us. Think about that in your own life.

If you have ever seen or heard the saying, “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,” that’s a lie! Biblically, God gives you more than you can handle so that you will learn to depend on Him more than on yourself. And Christ’s power in you is so much greater than your own.

To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. (Colossians 1:29)

The Greek word Paul used to describe Chris’s power in that verse is the origin of our word “dynamite.” Christ’s power is like dynamite in you. So dependent living is not weakness.

Dependent living is not weakness.

Dependent living is being stronger and having more influence, more success, and more satisfaction than you could ever have through your own efforts—as brilliant and self-sufficient as you might be (or think you are) or as weak and ineffective as you think you are. Or anywhere in-between those extremes.

All of us need to learn how to live dependently on God more than on ourselves. You learn how to do this as you act in obedience to the Word of God, depend on Jesus Christ for the power to do that, and trust Him with the results. As His child, God transforms your life by teaching you to live dependently on Him in weakness and in strength. This “dependent living” will satisfy your need to be stronger and more effective in life.

The Self-Sufficiency infection is an illusion. When you get too confident in your own abilities, you miss out on all the treasure you have because of Christ in you. You set yourself up for failure when you cannot perform according to expectations. You miss out on the joys of growing fully mature in Christ with all the freedom that maturity brings. Reject the self-sufficiency infection by becoming a God-dependent woman instead.

Remember what Paul wrote in Colossians,

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

A spiritual infection takes you captive to something other than Christ. The Self-Sufficiency infection is bad. Knowing the truth of God that you have in Jesus Christ gives you an immune system that rejects this spiritual infection. Let Jesus satisfy your heart needs with His truth and His love so you can get well and stay well.

Learn more about staying spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world through our Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon (11 lessons). 

Read other articles in this Healthy Living series. The next one is Conquer the “Manipulation by Guilt” Infection.

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