“Self-sufficiency is the enemy of salvation.”

C.S. Lewis

We live in a culture that bombards us with demands for self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is the mindset that says, “I can handle this.” “Look at all I’ve done.” or “If I need God, I will give Him a call.” An elevated view of myself always comes from a low view of God.

Ben Patterson said, “We have trivialized God.”If we are honest with ourselves, we are consistently guilty of downsizing God. When we do, we invariably upsize ourselves. We have been duped into believing our own press clippings and not enough of God’s Word. When we do so, the consequences could not be more tragic.

In 2 Chronicles 26, we find the account of an Old Testament king who suffered the consequences of becoming self-sufficient. Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king of Judah; he ruled 52 years and “did right in the sight of the Lord.” The historian Jerome said, “The national glory of Israel died with King Uzziah and has never returned to this day.”

Uzziah was brilliant in many areas. He was a builder. He built Eloth (vs 2), cities around Ashdod (vs 6), towers in the wilderness and on the gates of Jerusalem, as well as fortified corner buttresses on the walls (vs 9-10). He was an agriculturalist; he built cisterns in the dry arid land of Israel to water his livestock, crops, and vineyards (vs 10). He was a military mastermind and inventor. According to verse 15, Uzziah was responsible for the creation of the crossbow and catapults.

Uzziah was one impressive king of whom the text says, “Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong.” Notice the word “until.” “Until” marks a shift, a change indicating that he did not continue to be marvelously helped. What changed? Uzziah did.

But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. (vs 16)

You may ask, what was so wrong about what Uzziah did? In burning incense on the altar of incense, he was assuming a role that was prohibited to him. According to Exodus 30:1-10, only a priest in the line of Aaron could offer sacrifices on the altar because it was associated with God's holiness. And what makes Aaron's family so special? Nothing, except for the fact that God had decided to set them apart for His priesthood. God reserves the right to limit what we are allowed to do, even if you're a king.

The consequences of Uzziah’s sin of self-sufficiency were swift and severe. God judged him with leprosy while he was in the very act of his rebellion. He was cut off from the house of the Lord, he lost his kingdom, and lived out the rest of his life as an outcast.

Uzziah’s downfall was not because he lost his abilities, gifts, position, and accomplishments. His downfall stemmed from his belief that his abilities, gifts, position, and accomplishments entitled him to a special position and privilege with God. “Self-sufficiency is the enemy of our salvation.”

Self-sufficiency is a seductive drug that is driven by pride. Pride says, “Look what I did (emphasis on the “I”.) God is so fortunate that I am working for Him!” Pride seduces us to believe that whatever success we have is because of what we bring and that the boundaries God has established for others don’t apply to us. The poisonous lie pride sells us is that we can violate God’s holy standard and, in that violation, we will find our identity and personal fulfillment. It is simply not true. God has established boundaries and limits that He expects us to honor and adhere to. G.K. Chesterton said it this way, “Before you remove any fence, always pause long enough to ask why it was put there to begin with." At the very least, a God-established boundary is a pride check. Do we recognize God’s authority, and will we yield to Him? Self-sufficiency causes us to run through God’s fences, which always end in us falling off a cliff, leaving us broken and ruined, realizing far too late that His wisdom is higher than ours.

Humility is the antidote to the pride of self-sufficiency. Spurgeon declared, “Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself.” Humility is recognizing where we fit in the order of things, i.e., there is a God, and I am not Him. Humility doesn't say I am nothing; it simply means that, in myself, I bring nothing. If we bring nothing, then nothing is the credit we deserve. Uzziah’s mistake was to believe that all of his accomplishments were because of him. He read too many of his own press clippings and downplayed the “as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered” and the “he was marvelously helped” parts of his story. As gifted as Uzziah was, and he was extraordinarily gifted, he owed all of his success to the hand of God working through the gifts and abilities that He had given him.

Years ago, I heard Chuck Swindoll share a story about coming across a turtle sitting on a fence post. Chuck said that there are two things that you can know for sure whenever you see a turtle sitting on a fence post. First, the turtle didn't get there on his own strength or initiative. Someone put him there. Second, if he tries to do something on his own initiative, he will end up with a cracked shell. We are all just turtles on a fence post, and we need to always keep in mind Who put us there.

I believe our greatest danger may lie in the successes God gives us. Uzziah is a stark warning of the cost of being lured into believing that somehow we had something to do with our accomplishments. All we bring to the table is our faith and obedience. Any success we may achieve is only through the gifts and the strength He gives us. It’s all His calling, His gifting, His power, and His glory. Whatever fencepost we find ourselves on, He put us there. We're just the turtles.

For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power,

which mightily works within me.

Colossians 1:29

STORE