God is All Sufficient // The Amazing Names of God, Part 4

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

People dedicate their lives to all sorts of different things. But at the heart of it all is the need for satisfaction. For being filled up. Sufficiency. Contentment. Peace. Joy. That’s what we’re all looking for – and the only Person who Has it, the only place we’ll find it – is in God Himself!

It seems sometimes that we live in a world where people can never get enough. I am increasingly amazed at the excess we go to, at least in the western world, to try and get enough.

One of my favourite home renovation shows comes out of the USA. They renovate old houses. The thing that really gets me so often, more than anything else, are the kitchens these people put in their houses. Massive fridges, two ovens, two dishwashers, two separate sinks for washing up, even a second kitchen area called a "butlers pantry".

You know, I live in an old 19th Century terrace house and sure, we’ve renovated the kitchen, but as far as I’m concerned – one sink, one oven, one dishwasher are more than enough to keep things clean. At the same time people are starving. Two thirds of the world doesn’t have enough food to eat.

It’s one mixed up world in which we live. But somehow this need to be filled drives us because we need to have enough food and water to eat and drink but once people have that, they go from being filled to a need for fulfilment. If I get this promotion, if I get this pay rise, if I get this car, if I get this dress or this position or whatever it is, then I’ll be fulfilled, then I’ll have enough.

But as it turns out enough is never enough. We always want more. And the more we get, the more bloated we feel and the let satisfied we are and so we continue this vicious cycle, some people for a whole lifetime never ever experiencing the deep satisfaction and contentment that we’ve been craving for.

So, whatever our situation, whatever our circumstances there’s something inside us that drives us: a need for sufficiency, a need to have our needs met. To be sure, we often confuse "needs" with "wants". But a need nevertheless to be full, whatever "full" looks like.

Sometimes that’s a legitimate thing. We hunger for relationships we need to be part of a family or a community. That’s why loneliness hurts so much. Sometimes we’re facing difficult or perilous situations and we need to have our needs met – food, water, healthcare, safety. And other times we go looking to fulfil our desires, thinking that when those desires are met, then we’ll be happy – only to discover that it’s not true.

Over these last few days on the program we’ve been on a journey of discovery looking at some of the various names of God – the different names given to God throughout His Word, the Bible. Because those different names tell us a lot about who He is and who He wants to be in our lives – in your life, in my life. And today the name we’re going to look at is El-Shaddai – the all sufficient one, the God of the mountains, the God almighty.

There is no better way to understand El-Shaddai than through the story of Abraham and Sarah – Abraham, the father of Israel. He was 75 years old and childless and God calls him on a long, long journey from Ur, the place where he lived, to the land of the Canaanites. God shows him this land and promises it to him. But He also promises Abraham and Sarah a child but they are getting on, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 … come on God, who are you kidding?!! For almost a century I’ve been childless, I hunger after your promise but it now it just seems … impossible.

Now have a listen to what God says to Abraham. Genesis chapter 17 beginning at verse 1:

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous."

Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God."

This is an utterly, utterly impossible promise. 99 years old – you shall be a father of a multitude of nations. On what basis should Abraham believe this promise? A child when they’ve never been able to have any. A child when he and his wife are close to 100 years old. What’s the basis for this promise? Well, God gives him a basis. Have a listen again to what God said to Abraham 24 years into the journey towards the promise:

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am El Shaddai – I am the God Almighty, I am your all sufficient God - now walk before me, and be blameless.

The basis of the promise is God Himself – who God is. And here God uses this name for Himself, El-Shaddai – the all sufficient one. Nothing missing, nothing I can’t do, nothing that you have to go get for yourself anywhere else.

Sometimes when you and I are struggling with this or that, and things aren’t happening and things are taking for ever (remember 24 years so far for Abraham, almost a quarter of a century following this impossible promise from God) we give up or we take things into our own hands. Abraham and Sarah did that many a time.

We see our need and we imagine somehow that God can’t or God won’t meet it. But not long after this discussion between God and Abraham, Sarah fell pregnant and they had a son. And just the way God told them they called him Isaac – which means "he laughs". See, God had the last laugh. They laughed together.

God is the God who is more than sufficient to meet our needs; more than capable of keeping His promises with more than enough power to crash through whatever obstacle He has to crash through. And when He spoke to Abraham here, when He said to this old man, “Remember who I Am. I Am El-Shaddai”, God was setting out the basis of the promise. It was based on the nature of God and who God is. And who God is, is meant to be a blessing to us. Listen here to the words of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, Genesis Chapter 49:

By the God of your father, who will help you, by El-Shaddai – the God Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills: may they be on the head of Joseph, on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

This speaks of the sufficiency of God in His blessings to us. People are racing around all over the place looking to be filled; looking for joy; looking for peace; looking for enough but never finding it, never experiencing it. And all along the only place where that sufficiency can be found is in El-Shaddai – God Himself, the all sufficient One.

This, my friend is the story of my life. I looked for this stuff everywhere … everywhere. Wealth, status, position, career, recognition – I looked everywhere. And the only place I’ve been full, content, sufficient, at rest is in God Himself; in a deep intimate relationship with the All-Sufficient One – El-Shaddai.