self-sufficiency

From Eternity: The Son Who Always Was

Posted on March 15, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Before I was saved, the whole Jesus thing was pretty mystifying to me. It seemed so complicated, and weird, too. I mean, the blood and everything. [shudder]. And I definitely did not agree with the doctrine of sin, that notion that I was a bad person from birth and that I did or said or thought wrong things? Come ONNNN, man. I’m a nice person, not one sin in me. Not like that person over there. Or there. Or there…

The thing I thought was most weird was Jesus. I used to wonder, God must be pretty lame to keep trying things that don’t work. Humanity was created and then right away, fell into depravity. They got so bad that He sent the flood. Then He tried the temple and the Law and that didn’t work. So finally He sent Jesus, hoping that would stick. I’m not kidding. Before I was saved, and the scales fell from my eyes, that is what I thought.

I never knew that Jesus was not first born 2000 years ago.

Therefore it is of particular joy to me that I revel in verses that illustrate that Jesus was from the beginning. He wasn’t born on that cold night in Bethlehem when the angels proclaimed His arrival to the shepherds. He was with God from the beginning.

He is self-existent, One God in Three Persons. This is known as ‘aseity’, God being infinite, eternal, existing by Himself and self-sufficient. My scripture pictures this week will be of the verses that speak of His aseity. With Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday coming up I’ll focus on this attribute of His to hopefully help anyone else like I was before salvation that declare the aseity of God and His eternal existence. Jesus didn’t come into being when He was born of Mary, He always existed. It was always planned that He would die and be resurrected for our sins.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1)

How lovely to reflect the same language God used in Genesis 1: “In the beginning…”

“I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.” (Proverbs 8:23) As Matthew Henry says, “The Son of God declares himself to have been engaged in the creation of the world. How able, how fit is the Son of God to be the Saviour of the world, who was the Creator of it! The Son of God was ordained, before the world, to that great work. Does he delight in saving wretched sinners, and shall not we delight in his salvation?” How wonderful that Jesus was anointed from the beginning to do the great and monumental work of saving humanity.

“And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:17) Other versions say “in Him all things hold together.” He is not only before all things in honor and grandeur, but He is before all things in existence. Before the sun, before the earth, before the stars were made…He was, and is and is to come!

He is our timeless Jesus, who was before Abraham, before John the Baptist (His forerunner), who was part of God’s plan since the beginning to redeem humanity to His bosom. Far from being a series of stumbling lurches toward the end of time, God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are progressing in an orderly plan that is unfolding with humanity as its central work. His justice prepared this plan. His love has sustained this plan. His grace permeates this plan. His longsuffering has kept this plan. And in the end, His wrath will execute this plan.

THIS is the God I deeply love, submitting to His attributes and His incomprehensible foreknowing. He knew I would. He knew that in 2003, I would become His. It was His plan all along.

He was since the beginning. You may be coming late to the party, but you still have time until you draw your last breath to become a knowing participant in His plan and to be saved from your sins by reenting of them. His love never fails.

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:12-13)

theology

The Spiritual Danger of Self-Made Identity

Posted on March 5, 2026 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

SYNOPSIS: Christians must measure cultural female role models by Scripture. Figures like Oprah Winfrey may show admirable traits, yet their influence often celebrates self-exaltation. Oprah’s spirituality illustrates the danger of becoming your own authority, urging believers toward discernment and identity in Christ.

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discernment, Uncategorized

The arrogance of self-sufficiency

Posted on August 15, 2017 by elizabethprata

“I’m self-sufficient. I’m proud of it.”

That was me, before I was saved. I was saved by grace of Jesus Christ. My parents were intensely interested in raising their children as “self-sufficient” and “independent”. I heard those words so often. I had to ‘figure it out’ or ‘do for myself’ more times than not. By the time I reached adulthood, I was proud of all the things I could do by myself, for myself, leaning on no other. Asking for help was anathema.

Of course all the instilling of self-sufficiency was a stumbling block to bending the knee, realizing how hopeless I was on my own, and asking Jesus for help. The fact that He calls us and we don’t choose Him is a grace that will manifest itself in untold aspects throughout all eternity. I never would have asked. He chose me.

The pagan heart builds many idols. Any and all idols are in opposition to God. Idols are an enemy of God, and at enmity with Him. For me, the root of all that vaunted self-sufficiency is pride. I was proud of all that I could do. I was proud that I needed no one. I was proud of my capabilities- capabilities I’d cultivated and no one else.

Anything can be an idol. Self-sufficiency is one.

The Chaldeans were swimming in self-sufficiency. This idol permeated their actions and drenched their hearts in evil. Habakkuk proclaimed against it in chapter 2 of the book of Habakkuk. This prophet pronounced 5 woes on the Chaldeans (though they were not named, this was the original target audience.) As scripture has one meaning but many applications, these verses can and do apply to us today as we learn object lessons about doing for ourselves and not bowing to God’s will for us.

The fifth woe was the woe upon idolators (2:18–20). In poignant verses, God asks if idols can speak-

What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.(Habakkuk 2:18-19).

Oh! How terrible for the idolater who asks dead wood and stone to speak! How sad we seek instruction from dead objects and not the Living God!

Any and all idols in our hearts teach us lies. We are the maker of the idol, so because of our sin nature, it teaches us the lie of sin. Can stone awaken and instruct us in the ways of righteousness?

“But I don’t worship idols,” you say. “I don’t ask stone or wood to speak.”

Do you seek instruction from horoscopes? The sun? “Mother Nature”? Do you rely on your intellect? Your capabilities? Your money? All idols! All dead!

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23a). God speaks of this New Testament truth in the Old Testament in Habakkuk 2:8, 2:17…

The Good News is that the rest of the Romans verse continues after speaking of the wages of sin, by a glorious promise.

but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:6b)

The antidote to self-sufficiency is humility. As this woman spoke so eloquently on Twitter this week,

Anna Crouse‏ @annacrouse_

Humility isn’t a burden or humiliation or oppressive weight but is the only posture that can receive the wondrous grace gifts of God

Instead of “I can do it” we say “I can’t do it. Lord I need you!”

Resources

Elyse Fitzpatrick: Idols of the Heart
Do you feel discouraged, even defeated, in your battle against habitual sin? Are you dismayed or surprised by the situations that bring out your fear, anger, or distress? Elyse Fitzpatrick delves into the heart of the problem: deep down, we’re all idol-worshippers who put our loves, desires, and expectations in God’s place—and then suffer the consequences of our misplaced affections. Yet God loves his people and can use even our messy lives and struggles for his glory. Fitzpatrick shows us how to better search and know our hearts, long for our gracious Savior, and resist and crush our false gods. Includes questions for further thought.