"How Dependent?"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe….

"How Dependent?"

    How dependent are we on the Lord?  The answer begins with our beginning.

    "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3).

    We did not choose to exist, nor do we originate our own being.  Someone else did that for us.  "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" declared the Psalmist, referring to the creative marvel of the living God's engineering and artistry (Psalm 139:14).  When tempted to pride and self-sufficiency, we do well to remember this most foundational of truths regarding our own existence.  We are because and only because the great I AM caused us to be.

    Truth regarding our dependence proceeds to its continuation.  "By Him all things consist… upholding all things by the word of His power" (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3).  The Lord Jesus Christ sustains our being as He "giveth to all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).  As we rightly play our responsive role of seeking to enhance and preserve our earthly lives, we nevertheless do well to frequently remind ourselves that apart from the Lord's upholding of our very being, we would instantly dissolve into nothingness.  He promises not to do this - "whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever" - but we nevertheless realize and affirm, "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Ecclesiastes 3:11; Acts 17:25).

   The awareness of our Heavenly Father's creative and sustaining operation on our behalf leads us to realize how dependent we are for the practical, day to day living of our lives.  "Without Me, ye can do nothing" declared the Lord Jesus" (John 15:5).  If our lives are to bear fruit of eternal worth and significance, the motivating, guiding, and empowering work of God on our behalf must be accessed.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" declared the Apostle Paul, confirming both his Savior's faithfulness and our calling to trust the Lord to empower our lives by His life (Philippians 4:13).  Born again believers in the Lord Jesus are doers.  We ever seek to actualize the potential of our "fearfully and wonderfully made" humanity.  We do so, however, in the recognition that we can only live for God by living from God.  We "work out" that which God "worketh in" (Philippians 2:12-23).

   The truth of our Lord's origination, sustaining, and living work on our behalf illuminates both His faithfulness and our dependence.  We do well to frequently encourage and challenge one another with the blessed assurance that God can be trusted.  Moreover, He must be trusted.  We grope in the dark apart from such awareness, merely existing rather than genuinely and vibrantly living.  Or, as Paul exulted, "To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).  Nothing else fits the definition of life, and nothing else enables our access of such freely given wonder than the dependence of faith.

"The just shall live by faith."

(Romans 1:17)

"We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead."

(II Corinthians 1:9)

"He that trusteth in His own heart is a fool."

(Proverbs 28:26)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

(II Peter 3:18)

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