Many times when asking God for something, we expect to see immediate results. There’s nothing wrong with that really – especially when dealing with an all powerful God who lives outside of time. However, when immediate results are not apparent, we as humans start covering and start coming up with all manner of reasons and explanations for why our request was not granted. There is something wrong with this. Because right from the start the assumption is that our requests were not granted, and then based on that faulty assumption we begin conceiving all-manner of anti-Biblical doctrine to try and make sense of our present experience – and the faith of many people has been shipwrecked as a result of such practices.
What we will be studying today is what the Bible actually says about requesting things, faith and receiving. The true words spoken by Jesus may surprise you. Once we see the truth about what Jesus taught, it will broaden the horizon of our thinking and our expectations when it comes to believing and receiving.
I'm going to begin today by making a very controversial statement: Jesus is all that you need. Among believers, this statement is surprisingly controversial. Some people will say: “well, we need oxygen and food and water – so Jesus is really not all that we need.” This seems logical and even reasonable at first, when viewed through the lens of the world, but is this really what the Bible teaches?
In this study today, we will be examining the sufficiency of God, and specifically His sufficiency for us, in all things. Because if we do not understand that God is our total sufficiency, then we must begin looking to other things to fill-in the gaps. So as we see these truths today, we will broaden our view of the nature and character of God, and will be able to receive more from Him.