--Christian,
you can do nothing of eternal value without Him. You ARE dependent
upon Him for any moving of the Spirit in your heart, your home, your
life. You ARE dependent upon His Word to give you wisdom, to guide
your steps and to change your thinking. Acknowledge this humbly
before Him and joyously await His moving in your life.--
Desperate
and dependent. Two words that run very contrary to our human nature.
Naturally,
I strive for independence: “I
can
do
this, and I
will do it my
way.” Christian,
beware: To be dependent is contrary to my natural being; to be
independent is to be contrary to my God.
Dependent:
“To
be subject to the power of and at the disposal of another; not able
to exist or sustain itself without the will or power of another,”
is perhaps the scariest position of all for mankind. To be “unable
to sustain (myself) without the aid of (another)” is precisely why
we look for that first job, obtain that college degree, and learn the
many things necessary to “make it on
our own.”
It is the common mindset that dependency is appropriate for children
and the elderly, but definitely not for me. It is a state of being
that is to be fought against until one can defy it no longer; and at
that point, death is the preferred option.
In
like despised manner, desperation is felt in times of hopelessness;
in those times when we’ve been spent and have no option but to turn
for outside help. The very word “desperately” carries with it
tones of disregarding danger or safety; a careless, uncontrolled
state of mind. Fighting desperately for a lost cause, or falling
desperately in love…sounds to me like a precarious place to live,
like a state of mind I hope not to visit very often.
Live
as you want and believe what you will, the fact remains that we are
dependent beings. As the leaf hangs down from the branch, so too our
fragile life precariously clings in total dependence to the Branch. We observe the two year old as she screams, “I can do it myself!”
while futilely trying to push the weighty bureau out of the way to retrieve
a lost trinket, thinking she needs no assistance, so too our Father
looks on us with pity as He waits to hear our humble cry for help.
Fighting,
always fighting are we. Why is the truth so hard to realize? “Without
Me ye can do nothing.” For life, for breath, for the very next beat
of my heart, I need Thee, dear Lord. Yea, truly, I need Thee every
hour. Submission to His commandments and to unforeseeable
circumstances that arise, seem to me to be on a different level from
this total submission to Him: this way of thinking, this way of
worshiping Him with my thoughts and my actions each and every day;
this total yielding of who I am to Who He is and who He wants me to
be.
Each
fresh, new day finds new choices that lay before us. The battle of
life ceases at death and, until then, it rages anew every morning
within our naturally defiant breast: shall I begin my day with Him,
or will I be asserting my independence yet again? Will I willingly
confess to Him this day that, vain is the help of man and spread my
cause out before Him or will I lean upon my own understanding?
The
battle begins in the mind. It all starts with the thought that, “I
need no one for I am able.” Submission begins
with the acknowledgment of inferiority or dependence. Acknowledgment
occurs in the mind and actions follow. The mind is precisely where
fear begins, as well. What a dreadful battlefield we hold within our
very being. How close the battle rages!
To
acknowledge my desperate dependence on my heavenly Father is the
beginning of a grand and glorious state of being, a most productive
way of living. “I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and
will hold thine hand, and will keep thee…” — Dependent on the
very hand of God!
“And this is the Father’s will which hath sent
me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up again at the last day.” –Held by Him Who will
never fail!
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith
the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected
end.” -Laying our future at the feet of One Who plans for our good,
not for our failure and defeat!
The
opposite of desperate dependence is the casual attitude of bringing God
along with you as you move through your life, knowing He’s
there to assist if you really need Him. For example, death, major
accidents, big decisions, health issues, a teen that has strayed…you
know, the big things that we certainly want God in the middle of.
How
contrary this attitude is to desperate dependence! “Neither have I
gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words
of his mouth more than my necessary food.” In choosing to be
desperately dependent, I see the riches available to me and realize
that my wilderness scavenging has produced nothing but thistles and
thorns, a dearth of satisfaction and a thirst unquenchable.
My
way is sorely lacking in substance and value. On the contrary, His
plan, His way, though yet to be understood, is by far the fairer way
because He is in this way and with Him there is light and good and
love. His mountains to climb will bring us to the higher
ground. His cross to bear is the reasonable sacrifice we are to carry
and place at His feet with contented and humble cries of, “Not my
will, but Thine be done.”
Says
Hannah Whitall Smith, “Meet His measureless devotion for you with a
measureless devotion to Him. Be glad and eager to throw yourself
unreservedly in His loving arms, and to hand over the reins of
government to Him.” “Perfect obedience would be perfect
happiness, if only we had perfect confidence in the power we were
obeying.” (Unknown)
If
only we knew Him?! If only we could trust Him?!
How absurd! “Closer to thee than breathing, and nearer than hands
and feet”, says Tennyson of our God. He who has made thee whole; He
who has wrought new life in you and placed His very Spirit within
you; He Who has promised to guide thee with His eye, is the same One who holds the stars in place and sets each runner in
his race and has made His abode with you. Devoted He is to us, and
evermore devoted we should be to Him.
I
challenge you to speak to your Father about becoming desperately
dependent on Him. Cease the
wandering; crave the tangible presence of the Saviour. Place yourself
in that humble, needy position every morning and beg Him to be still
nearer to you. Move not without His prompting and speak not without
His grace. Beg for His presence to be felt through your being. Hand
Him the reins, your heart, your plans and your passions; for safe are
they with Him. And blessed you will be for having laid your
precious bits in His hand. He will take your squandered time, your
splintered works, your disfigured plans, your fragments of beauty,
and your shattered hopes, and will make all things new for you.
Disappointed you cannot be, for He promises you He’ll give you,
“beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness; that (you) might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be
glorified.”
Christian,
you can do nothing of eternal value without Him. You ARE dependent
upon Him for any moving of the Spirit in your heart, your home, your
life. You ARE dependent upon His Word to give you wisdom, to guide
your steps and to change your thinking. Acknowledge this humbly
before Him and joyously await His moving in your life.
Purposefully
choose desperate
dependence;
your life will never be the same. May this phrase ring in your ears
until it becomes your song.
“Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou
hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were
created.”
Revelation
4:11
