Here is an awesome and wonderful truth. God is always sufficient and able! You may have been told this before and you may have even heard other people talk about how God met a need that they had in a way that was completely perfect. But until it has been demonstrated to you and until you have experienced it personally then you really don’t have an understanding of hikanos.
Hikanos is a Greek word that is used in several places in the Bible and has meanings of sufficient, fit, able, adequate and worthy. According to Mr Steve Taylor in his upcoming book “The Thunder Poet”, the Septuagint Bible translators chose to translate The Almighty’s name as hikanos in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. The Almighty’s name in that case literally means “the sufficient one” or “the adequate one” as he is adequate and sufficient for every need.
If you remember your Bible then you know that God provided for Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, by providing through Boaz a kinsman- redeemer. For Ruth and Naomi, God was hikanos just as he is in our lives today.
Lately, the sufficiency of God has been much on my mind. Life has not been easy or simple and the more difficult things get the more I am mindful of my needs and the ability of God to meet them. While I do not relish or seek out difficulty it has been amazing over the last few weeks and months to watch God obliterate obstacle after obstacle and provide exactly what I need at exactly the right time.
Just a few days ago I experienced one of the most challenging work days that I have ever been through. One of our main staff members was out for personal reasons and in a small business that means that everyone else has to do a little bit (or a lot) more. On top of that, I began the day with a dentist appointment which meant that my normal 8 hours would be more like 6.5 or 7 hours to get more work done that I can usually do in 8.
I knew all of that going in and I earnestly prayed for God to grant me supernatural productivity and energy and to help me use my time wisely. Although I didn’t know how the day would go, I trusted God to be hikanos for me.
My dentist appointment normally takes an hour and a half counting the travel and waiting time. On that day I was back in 40 minutes. While I was in the chair but right before I left the dentist said “I am completely on time this morning and I am normally always late! This is very unusual for me” and I knew that God was in it.
The amount of business we did on that day was nearly triple what we normally do and we accomplished it while down a man. I still don’t know how, realistically, that I was able to answer all of the phone calls, respond to all of the email, complete all of the paperwork and leave on time but I did. And it is only because God provided and because God was, once again, showing his sufficiency to me.
I felt his presence close at hand that day and my thought to end the day was, “if I have to go through the most difficult and exhausting days just to feel God’s presence and to know his sufficiency then isn’t it worth it?!” “Yes, it absolutely is!”
And if I had the time and the opportunity I could tell you of similar days and similar circumstances where I had no chance of having the resources I needed but where God stepped in and provided for me in ways that were both marvelous and miraculous. Hikanos as a concept is personal to me and my hope is that it is personal to you as well.
Above all, God longs to be personal with each of us and we will never know God as we should until we understand and experience his sufficiency and provision in our lives.