OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”  (Psalm 84:2 NIV)

There is a restlessness deep within each of us that compels us to search for the person, the place, the job, the "god" that will fill the void and give us peace.  This restlessness drives us to find someone who will love us for who we are, understand our fears and anxieties, affirm our worth, and call our lives into account.  To admit our need for and dependence upon God requires humility and vulnerability, which paves the way not only for knowing God, but also for becoming intimate with Him.  "Mutual love and confidence are the keys to intimacy," writes J. Oswald Sanders; "deepening intimacy with God is the outcome of deep desire." 

-- Cynthia Heald in “Intimacy with God”

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TOTAL DEPENDENCE

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:5 NIV)

When I was growing up, I thought the greatest Christian must be the person who walked around with shoulders thrown back because of tremendous inner strength and power, quoting Scripture and letting everyone know he has arrived. I have since learned that the most mature believer is the one who is bent over, leaning most heavily on the Lord, and admitting his total inability to do anything without Christ. The greatest Christian is not the one who has achieved the most but rather the one who has received the most. God’s grace, love, and mercy flow through him abundantly because he walks in total dependence. 

-- Jim Cymbala in “Fresh Faith”

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