Latest / Reformed Thinking / Sufficient by God: Ministers of the New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3:5–6)

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Sufficient by God: Ministers of the New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3:5–6) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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try to really get under the skin of key scripture passages,
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aiming for, you know, understanding that changes how
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we think and live. If you're involved in ministry,
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thinking about it, or honestly just want to grasp where real
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spiritual strength comes from, well, this conversation should
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be right up your alley. Today we are digging into Second
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Corinthians chapter 3, specifically verses 5 and 6.
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It's Paul's huge statement on what makes someone adequate or
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sufficient for ministry. And spoiler alert, it basically
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forces us to ditch any idea of self-reliance and serving
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Christ. We've got a good stack of
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resources here that take this text seriously.
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Theologically speaking, we want to trace Paul's argument step by
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step. Yeah, and it's crucial to
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remember Paul isn't just dropping this idea out of
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nowhere. He's directly answering this
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this almost gut wrenching question he asked back in
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chapter 2 verse 16. Who is sufficient for these
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things? Right, that question just hangs
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there, doesn't it? Over anyone trying to serve God.
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It really does. And our goal today, our mission,
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if you like, is to follow Paul's answer closely because what he
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does is show how the New Covenant completely flips the
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script on what competence means. He pulls the source away from,
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you know, human talent OR education or personality.
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All the things we tend to focus on.
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Exactly. And he grounds it entirely in
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what God does. Yeah, decisively.
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OK, let's unpack this. Then Paul kicks off, not with
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some big positive statement, but actually with a -1 a denial.
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And it's, well, it's pretty shocking when you think about
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who's saying it. Our sources highlight this.
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They say it slices to the root of ministerial presumption.
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It's like he has to clear away all the rubble of human pride
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before he can build anything new.
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It's probably worth just pausing here.
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I mean, this is Paul writing, Apostle Paul, intellectually
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brilliant, spiritually, you know, incredibly effective by
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any measure. Yeah, arguably the most
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successful minister in history, apart from Christ himself.
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And yet he starts by saying, effectively, we're not
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qualified, not in ourselves. Yeah.
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Why is rejecting self-sufficiency so
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foundational? Why start there?
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Well, I think it's because if even a tiny bit of
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self-sufficiency is allowed to creep in, the default human
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tendency is always, always to fall back on performance, on
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skills, on what we bring to the table.
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Right we. Lean on our own understanding.
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We do so Paul just slams that door shut right at the
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beginning. The starting point for anyone
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even thinking about ministry has to be 0. self-reliance.
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He actually dismantles 3 specific ways we might try to
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find confidence in ourselves really thorough.
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OK, so the first one is what we could call the denial of
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intrinsic capacity. Paul denies possessing the Greek
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word is hikanoy, meaning sufficient or competent.
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He denies possessing that intrinsically within themselves.
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So Hikanoy is like having what it takes naturally.
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Exactly. He says flat out not that we are
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adequate in ourselves. And this isn't just him being
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humble, you know, like false modesty.
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It's a theological fact he's stating.
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It means we lack the inherent stamina, the spiritual skill,
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the intellectual horsepower, even that, like the moral Polish
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needed for the job. Left to our own devices,
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spiritually speaking, we are completely, utterly inadequate
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to handle the gospel, this message of life and death.
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It's too much for us. I think a lot of folks, maybe
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even pastors, assume that, OK, maybe I'm not adequate now, but
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if I just try harder, read more books, go to the right school,
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I'll become adequate. I'll develop that capacity.
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Yeah, that's a common thought, but Paul seems to cut that off
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too. He's focused on the source, the
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origin point, which leads right into the second denial.
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This one's even stronger. It's the denial of self sourced
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origin. He denies that anything they do
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actually originates from them. And to really like hammer this
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home, he uses this unusual grammatical structure.
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Doubled prepositions. He says text dad followed by
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text dance there. OK, why double up like that?
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What's the effect? Well, the first phrase text,
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text Dan, means basically from ourselves.
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It denies the inner source. Nothing starts from within us.
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But then the second phrase text I've sent adds another layer.
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It means as if from ourselves. So it denies even the appearance
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or the claim that something came from us.
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OK, so it's not just that it doesn't come from us, but we
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can't even act like it does. Precisely.
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The message is absolutely watertight.
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Ministerial competence isn't something you build up to clever
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techniques or special training or just having a magnetic
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personality. It's a completely foreign to our
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fallen nature. It's not born from our efforts.
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If anything good happens, any fruit is born.
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The credit absolutely has to go somewhere else.
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Wow, that really challenges so much of modern ministry
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thinking, doesn't it? Where success often gets chalked
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up to leadership style or being innovative, or, you know,
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mastering the latest methods. Oh.
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Absolutely. Paul's pre empting all of that
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by nearly 2000 years and he goes even further.
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He takes this denial right into the realm of our minds or
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thinking, which, let's be honest, is often where pride
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really takes root. The intellectual side, yeah.
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This is the Third Point the denial of self source conclusion
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making. He says the rejection extends
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even to our mental activity. He denies the ability to
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consider anything or the Greek is texlo asai to reckon, to
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compute as originating from ourselves.
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Logisoster. So that's like logical reasoning
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calculation. Yes, it often carries that
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sense, careful deliberation, working something out logically.
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Paul is saying that even the capacity to form the right ideas
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about ministry, the competence to plan effectively, the mental
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grasp needed for spiritual truth, even that thinking
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process isn't self generated. Wait, so even our ability to
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think correctly about God's work doesn't come from us?
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Not its ultimate source, no. If our very capacity for
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spiritual calculation and understanding is flawed,
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independent at its root, then obviously the actual doing, the
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performance of ministry, must rely on an outside source too.
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OK, so let's wrap up this first section.
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We started with Paul's big question back in chapter 2.
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Who is sufficient for these things?
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Based on this denial in 3.5 A, what's Paul's initial answer?
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His initial answer is a resounding, comprehensive,
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theological universal negative Nobody.
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Nobody is sufficient in themselves, period.
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And getting that, really getting that deep down, that starting
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point of complete personal spiritual poverty in relation to
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the task isn't a disadvantage. It's actually the non negotiable
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prerequisite for New Covenant ministry.
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It forces us to look elsewhere for the competence we need.
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OK, so Paul basically tears down any notion of human ability or
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self-reliance. He shuts that door firmly, but
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then immediately he does a 180. Instantly, the transition sharp
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and necessary. Once the human source is totally
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denied, he flips it. The vacuum, you could say, is
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immediately filled by God's provision.
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Right, the contrast is stark. Yeah, it moves from the human,
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not that we to the divine, but our Paul declares.
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But our sufficiency is from God. Notice he using the noun form
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here. Hikanodes.
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Ah. So before it was the adjective
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hikanoy adequate. Now it's the thing itself.
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Adequacy or sufficiency? Exactly.
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He denied that they are adequate in themselves, and now he
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asserts that their actual sufficiency, the quality itself,
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originates from God. The source, The Fountainhead, is
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totally outside the minister. Competence for ministry isn't
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earned or developed. It's given, it's bestowed.
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That's a huge difference. It means God isn't just like
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boosting our existing skills or giving us a helping hand.
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He's actually creating the competence where it didn't exist
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before. That's the core of it.
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It's not augmentation, it's origination.
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And Paul cements this idea when he talks about the decisive act
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of qualification. He says God performs a specific
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effective action. God is the one who also
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qualified us. The verb is text in no sin to be
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ministers of a new covenant. So our qualification isn't based
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on our resume or seminary degree.
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Our track record? Nope.
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None of that. It's based solely on God's
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personal sovereign intervention. Let's look at that verb text.
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In no sense. It's an aerist active indicative
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now. The auroras tense in Greek often
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points to a specific completed action in the past.
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It's done. Finished.
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So God did this. It's not something he's maybe
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doing now. It refers to a decisive act God
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alone made fit or rendered sufficient.
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It's definitive. It happened.
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It's not like an ongoing support program where he tops us up.
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It's an objective status he conferred upon them, rooted in
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the covenant. OK, but here's a practical
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question then. If the qualification is this
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past decisive act by God, what do we do with the fact that,
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well, most ministers, most Christians trying to serve,
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often feel deeply inadequate day-to-day?
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If the feeling of insufficiency is the starting point Paul
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insists on, doesn't that feeling persist?
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Ah, yes, that's exactly the tension, the paradox of New
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Covenant ministry. That feeling of inadequacy.
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It should remain. In a sense, it's the honest,
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sober awareness of our ongoing moment by moment dependence on
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God. But crucially, that feeling
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doesn't negate the objective reality of the qualification Our
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standing are being made sufficient is based on God's
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past completed act in Christ and his establishing of the New
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Covenant. It's not based on our feelings
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or performance today. So when we feel incapable, we
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shouldn't doubt the qualification itself.
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No, we should recognize it as a signal, a prompt to actively
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rely on the source of that qualification.
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God himself, right here, right now.
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The competence is always His, graciously given, constantly
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needed. We operate on borrowed strength,
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as it were. OK, that makes sense.
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And the big take away here for you listening is that this
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divine act of qualification isn't just some generic
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blessing. It specifically places the
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minister within a particular framework.
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We are ministers of a new covenant, and that covenant
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reality dictates everything about where the power lies and
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how ministry actually works. Right.
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And this leads Paul straight into one of the most
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theologically packed and sometimes controversial
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statements he ever made. He defines the nature of this
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new covenant ministry by drawing a really sharp contrast.
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The contrast. Between.
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Between the Old Covenant administration, which he labels
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the letter that's grandma in Greek, and the New Covenant
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administration which is characterized by the spirit
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pneuma. Letter versus spirit OK, let's
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start with the letter. Paul says something pretty
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shocking about it. The letter killed.
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That's the condemning function of the letter.
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Now, first we need to be clear on what he means by letter.
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What's its identity? He's referring to the Mosaic
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Law, the law given at Sinai conceived as an external written
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code. He explicitly links it later in
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the chapter to being engraved on stones.
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So it emphasizes the outwardness, the written
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downness of it. Exactly.
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It's external, authoritative, fixed, but fundamentally outside
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the person it addresses. OK, but hang on.
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How can God's law, which Paul elsewhere calls holy, righteous,
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and good? How can it kill?
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That sounds really counterintuitive, especially if
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you think the law is the way to life.
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Yeah, that's the $1,000,000 question, isn't it?
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And the answer lies in its function.
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Specifically, its function when it interacts with us with fallen
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human nature. It's the interaction.
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Right. The letter kills.
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The Greek is a Poctini. Not because the law itself is
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flawed or evil. It's perfect.
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But when this perfect external standard encounters sinful
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humanity, humanity that's inherently resistant to God,
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well, you can only do one thing. Yes.
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It exposes the sin. It highlights the failure.
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It pronounces the sentence of death that sin deserves.
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Think of Romans 7. Paul says the law is good, but
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sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment,
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produced death in him. The law demands perfect
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obedience, demands life, but it can't actually give the life it
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demands the sinners. It just shows us we fall short
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and deserve judgment. It writes the diagnosis and
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signs the death warrant. So inevitably this results in
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condemnation. If fallen people try to use the
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law as a covenant of works, you know, as a checklist, a ladder
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to climb to earn God's favor or achieve spiritual life, it will
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crush them. It condemns.
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That's why Paul calls that old administration a ministry of
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death and a ministry of condemnation.
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Its purpose, in a way, was to show the utter impossibility of
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self salvation and drive us to despair of our own efforts.
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OK, so the letter does its intended work perfectly, and
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that work includes showing us our spiritual deadness.
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Unnecessary but harsh reality check.
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Precisely, it clears the ground for the real solution.
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Which brings us to the other side of the contrast, the
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vivifying power of the Spirit. Yes, the Spirit pneuma here
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represents the great promised gift of the end times, the
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defining power and reality of the New Covenant administration
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which Christ inaugurated through His death and resurrection.
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And the Spirit score function is the absolute opposite of the
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letters. The Spirit gives life or makes a
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lives. The Greek is shupoye.
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This life giving ministry begins right where the letters ministry
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terminates in death. Where the law condemns, the
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Spirit quickens. What does that giving life look
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like? Is it just like a feeling of
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energy or something? Oh, much, much deeper than that.
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This is profound regenerative life giving work.
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The Spirit performs spiritual heart surgery.
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He regenerates the dead human spirit.
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He comes to indwell the believer permanently.
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He unites us spiritually to the crucified and now risen Christ,
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making us participants in His resurrection life.
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So it's new creation stuff. It absolutely is.
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We share in Christ's own life. The Spirit takes God's moral
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character reflected in the law and begins to make it an
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internal reality in US. He creates both the desire and
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the ability to obey God from a changed heart.
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OK, we definitely need to pause here and address a really common
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misunderstanding. When Paul contrasts letter in
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Spirit, people so often take it to me.
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And he's pitting the Bible, the written word, against the Holy
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Spirit's leading. You know, don't be bound by the
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letter of Scripture, just follow the Spirit.
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This leads some people to downplay Bible study and chase
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subjective experiences. What is Paul actually
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contrasting here? This is such a critical point
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and something the Reformed tradition has always been
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careful to clarify. Paul is absolutely not setting
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up the Bible against the Spirit. That would be nonsensical, as
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the Spirit is the ultimate author of Scripture.
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The contrast is covenantal. It's redemptive, historical.
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He's contrasting to administrations or economies of
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God's covenant dealings. On one hand, the external
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condemning administration, the Mosaic system symbolized by the
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law written externally on stone tablets.
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On the other hand, the internal vivifying administration of the
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new covenant made effective by the Holy Spirit working within
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the believer. So the Spirit doesn't bypass the
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Word. Never.
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The Spirit uses the Word, specifically the Apostolic
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Gospel message found in Scripture, as His primary
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instrument to bring conviction, create faith, and impart life.
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The external code condemns the internal application of the
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gospel by the Spirit through the Word, regenerates and saves.
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They work together, but the life comes from the Spirit applying
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the truth, not just from the external letters on a page.
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And you know what makes Paul's argument here in 2nd Corinthians
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3 so compelling is that this whole contrast, a Kell Sternal
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letter versus internal spirit, isn't something he just
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invented. It's the direct fulfillment of
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specific promises God made through the Old Testament
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prophets about what the New Covenant would look like.
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It shows this amazing consistency in God's plan.
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So this wasn't a sudden shift, but the planned destination all
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along. Exactly.
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First you have to see the need for inward change that was
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recognized even within the Old Covenant itself.
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Moses commanded the people circumcised, therefore the
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foreskin of your heart. That shows human responsibility,
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the need for an internal change. Right and inward turning.
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Yes, but then almost in the same breath, Moses acknowledged that
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ultimately only God could truly perform this heart surgery.
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In Deuteronomy 30 verse six, he says God himself will circumcise
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your heart so that you will love the Lord your God.
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The law diagnosed the problem, the hard Stony heart, but it
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didn't contain the cure itself. It showed the need but couldn't
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meet it. Precisely.
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It was like diagnosing cancer but having no medicine for it.
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So then the prophets come along and start describing what the
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medicine, the cure would actually involve.
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We do, and Jeremiah song 1.33 is really the headline promise.
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The spirits work and believers directly fulfills God's pledge
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in the new covenant. I will put my law within them,
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and I will write it on their hearts.
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That's the key shift, isn't it? The location changes.
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Completely from external stone tablets that could be ignored or
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resisted to the very core of human personality, the heart.
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When the law is written internally by the Spirit, duty
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starts to become desire. Obligation transforms into
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inclination. And Ezekiel 36, verses 26 and 27
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gives us even more detail on the mechanism.
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It's incredibly graphic. God promises this radical heart
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transplant. He says he'll remove the heart
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of stone, that resistant dead heart, and give a heart of
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flesh, one that's soft, responsive, alive.
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Wow, a spiritual transplant. Yeah, but it doesn't stop there,
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he says. And I will put my spirit within
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you and cause you to walk in my statutes.
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See, the spirit doesn't just give a new heart.
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He provides the ongoing internal enablement, the effective power
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needed to actually live in a way that pleases God.
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He empowers the obedience that the external letter could only
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command, but never produce in fallen people.
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So it all connects. God's will goes from being an
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external demand, hitting a brick wall basically, to becoming an
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internal driving principle written onto a new soft heart.
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And this whole new covenant reality is secured, ratified by
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Christ's blood, which, as Galatians 3.13 says, exhausted
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the law's curse, allowing the Spirit to be poured out to do
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this amazing inward work. The Stoneheart problem is
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solved. It is, and grasping this
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covenantal foundation, this whole ark, is so helpful for
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navigating the Christian life. It guards the gospel message
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against two really persistent errors that always seem to crop
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up in the church. OK.
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What are those two errors? Well, first, it absolutely
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destroys legalism because the letter, the external code cannot
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give life. Life comes from the Spirit based
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on Christ's finished work. Therefore, you can never, ever
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secure and maintain your relationship with God by trying
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to use the law as a ladder. You know, keeping a set of rules
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or performing rituals to climb your way to God's favor.
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The moment you try that, it flicks back to condemnation
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mode. Instantly, as you fail, we have
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to constantly remind ourselves and preach to others that
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righteousness is a gift received by faith alone, not a wage
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earned by performance. OK, so it guards against
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legalism. What's the second error?
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The opposite extreme antinomianism.
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That's the idea that because we're under grace, God's moral
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law, his commands don't matter anymore, that they're somehow
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abolished. License to sin kind of thinking.
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Right. But Paul shows that's completely
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wrong, too. The Spirit doesn't come to
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abolish God's moral will. He comes to internalize it, to
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write it on the heart. The Spirit is given precisely so
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that, as Romans 8.4 says, the righteous requirement of the law
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might be fulfilled in us. So the Spirit enables obedience.
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He doesn't cancel the need for it.
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Exactly. The Spirit who gives life,
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vivifies, is the same Spirit who makes us holy, sanctifies.
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He produces real, willing obedience that flows from the
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new heart. The obedience is the result of
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life, never the cause or basis of life.
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That distinction is crucial. OK, this is where it gets
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intensely practical. We've established A theology.
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Sufficiency isn't in us, it's from God, who qualifies us as
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ministers of a new covenant defined by the life giving
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spirit fulfilling prophecy. So if that's true, if our
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sufficiency is from God, how does that radically change the
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actual practice of ministry, the day-to-day, the posture we take?
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It changes absolutely everything.
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It means moving from a model that's fundamentally human
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centered and technique driven to one that is God centered and
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totally dependence based. The main implication is a
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complete overhaul of our ministerial method.
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If competence is bestowed by God, then the minister's first
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job, their most constant activity, isn't really to
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innovate or craft the perfect strategic plan or become a
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better public speaker. It's to kneel.
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Start with dependence. Yes, the focus shifts entirely
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away from polishing human techniques or relying on
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personality or designing clever programs.
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Instead, it lands squarely on relying on divine agency.
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Now this doesn't mean we become passive or lazy.
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Paul himself worked incredibly hard.
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But it means we understand that the effectiveness, the actual
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life changing power, comes solely from God.
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Our effort is necessary, but his power is what makes the
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difference. And This is why prayer becomes
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the absolute bloodstream of New Covenant ministry.
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If God is the source, then prayer isn't just a nice
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preliminary or an emergency measure.
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It's the main engine. It's, as one source puts it, a
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lived confession that competence is bestowed, not engineered.
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That's good, A lived confession. Yeah, I mean think about it.
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If you truly believe sufficiency comes from God, then persistent,
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faith filled prayer is the only logical response.
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A minister relying on self will prioritize meetings, planning,
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skill development. A minister operating out of the
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New Covenant realizes that prayer is the essential pipeline
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through which God's power flows into their work.
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So let's focus on strategy meetings more on actual prayer
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meetings. Well, perhaps better strategy
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meetings that begin and are saturated with prayer.
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We should be fostering times of prayer that are deeply rooted in
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Scripture, clinging to God's promises because we're banking
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everything on His ability, not ours.
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And when we pray, when we kneel, we're not just asking for some
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vague spiritual feeling, we're asking God's Spirit to work
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through the specific channels he himself has set up.
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Right. Exactly.
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We don't just depend on God in a vacuum.
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We depend on Him to work through the ordinary means of grace.
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That means centering the ministry relentlessly on the
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things God has appointed and promised to use, primarily his
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Word, the sacraments. In prayer itself.
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We trust the simple tools. Let's break those down briefly.
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Start with the word OK. The word is non negotiable.
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Ministry is at its core Word and Spirit ministry.
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Things like expository preaching where you carefully open up the
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biblical text, proclaim Christ from it, and applied both the
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laws, demands and the gospels promises to people's lives.
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That has to be central. And undependently.
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Completely dependently, we depend on the Spirit for clarity
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and understanding and explaining the text.
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We depend on the Spirit to take that preached word and make it
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Pierce hearts, create faith, and bring sanctification.
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The Spirit works with and through the scriptures He
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inspired. So when we see ministries today
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that maybe a downplay preaching and focus heavily on say market
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research or slick presentations or entertainment value to draw
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people in, what's the core error there based on this passage?
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The error is pragmatism. It's assuming that spiritual
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life for church growth can be achieved through clever human
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engineering or by finding what works according to worldly
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metrics. If the spirit is the one who
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gives life, then even the most brilliant marketing campaign or
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entertaining service can't raise the spiritually dead.
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Right technique can't regenerate.
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No. So dependence means we have to
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faithfully stick to the means God has promised to bless Word,
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sacrament, prayer, even if they seem slow or unimpressive or
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foolish to the world around us. Our confidence is in the gospel
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message and the Spirit's power, not in our methods.
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What about the flip side, those who seem to value spiritual
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experiences over the Word? That's the danger of religious
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enthusiasm, or maybe subjectivism.
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The Holy Spirit, biblically understood, always operates in
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concert with the Apostolic Word. He inspired.
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He illuminates scripture. He doesn't give new competing
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revelations. So chasing prophecies are
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emotional highs isn't the path to maturity.
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No maturity actually comes through deeper, more humble,
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more dependent submission to the word.
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We already have the sufficient close Canon of scripture.
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When the word gets sidelined in favor of subjective experiences,
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the spirits primary tool is neglected and things often drift
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into air or instability. Let's bring this down to
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relationships, maybe counseling situations.
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If we hold to this letter kills spirit gives life framework, how
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should that shape how a pastor or elder approaches someone
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struggling with sin? Oh, it changes the whole
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dynamic. The big temptation in counseling
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is often legalism in counseling, that's trying to fix people by
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applying external pressure, giving them lists of rules,
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focusing only on behavior modification, basically using
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the law as a tool to force change.
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Trying to make the letter do what only the Spirit can.
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Exactly. But a minister qualified by God
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operating in the new Covenant has to use the law lawfully.
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As Paul says elsewhere first, yes, use the law to expose the
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sin, to show its seriousness, its death dealing nature of the
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letter kills. Help the person see their
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complete inability to fix themselves, their desperate need
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for grace. So bring them to the end of
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themselves, yes? But then immediately pivot to
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holding forth Christ. Proclaim the gospel promises,
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the Spirit gives life. Offer the forgiveness, the
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acceptance, the new heart, the power for change found only in
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Jesus. And crucially, you don't trust
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your counseling technique or your wisdom or your stern
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warnings to produce the change. You trust the Holy Spirit to use
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the Word of Law and Gospel to speak about genuine, heartfelt
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repentance and transformation. This understanding really does
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seem to offer a kind of freedom, doesn't it?
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Our sources talked about the quiet courage of New Covenant
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ministry. It's like you can cheerfully
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admit you're inadequate. Because you are.
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But at the same time, have this holy confidence, not in
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yourself, but in God, who is adequate and who has qualified
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you. It lifts that crushing burden of
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feeling like you have to be sufficient.
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Absolutely. The freedom is immense, and it
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also demands, logically, that we completely rethink how we
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measure success in ministry. If the source of competence and
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fruitfulness is God, then our metrics can't be the world's
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metrics. They can't be corporate metrics.
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So what do new covenant metrics look like?
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They look fundamentally different.
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Instead of just counting numbers or dollars, we should be looking
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for the fruit of the spirit described in Galatians 5.
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Real internal character transformation.
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Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
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faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
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Things that only God can produce, yes.
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We look for genuine repentance that goes deeper than just
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managing one's image. We look for growing hunger for
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God's Word, a deepening conformity to the character of
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Christ shown in practical ways like selfless love and service
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within the church community. We're trying to measure actual
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spiritual life, not just external activity or noise or
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hype. That distinction you made,
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Repentance versus image management, seems key here.
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Image management feels like the fruit of the letter, right?
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External conformity maybe, but without the inner life.
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That's a great way to put it. Image management comes from
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external pressure. Heart change comes from the
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internal work of the Spirit. Obedience flowing from life
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received. Not performed for life or
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approval. So if we're only tracking
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attendance numbers, budget figures, social media reach, we
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might be using the metrics of human sufficiency, the letter.
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Quite possibly. But if we're looking for
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evidence of humility, growing holiness, increasing
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prayerfulness, tangible love, genuine heart obedience, then
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we're looking for the fingerprints of the Spirit
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that's measuring new covenant success.
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OK, let's try to tie this all together.
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The whole argument of 2nd Corinthians 3 verses 5 and 6
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seems incredibly tight. We start by absolutely denying
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any sufficiency in ourselves. Because God is the one who
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decisively qualified us for ministry.
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Specifically, ministry within a new covenant.
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A covenant animated and made effective by the Holy Spirit.
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Who gives life to the human heart, doing what the external
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law, the letter, could only condemn but never achieve?
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Exactly. It flows perfectly, and this
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really leaves us and you the with a final thought to wrestle
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with. If it's true, if ministerial
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adequacy, all spiritual fruit and any resulting glory belong
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entirely to God, then our method, our approach to ministry
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in the Christian life is basically settled.
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It has to be 1 of total, unwavering, moment by moment
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dependence on God Himself, expressed through faithfulness
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to His appointed means of grace. Everything begins and continues
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on our knees. So renounce the temptation to
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rely on yourself, on your own strength or cleverness.
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Commit yourself to those ordinary means, word, sacrament,
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prayer that God has promised to bless, and then expect the Holy
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Spirit to do his unique life giving work, the work the letter
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could never do. Maybe reflect this week.
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Where are you trying to find life or validation through your
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own efforts versus where are you consciously receiving the life
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and the competence that flow freely from the Spirit of the
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living God? That's the heart of Reformed
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thinking.