THE WISDOM OF DEPENDENCE

Because I have been following Jesus Christ for a while now, I can sometimes fall into a very subtle trap without noticing. Because of my zeal for Him, because it has been a while I didn’t fall into anger or sin (not talking about deliberately planning sin), I start to think that I am now in a better shape spiritually, that God is pleased with me or impressed. That leads to a subtle pride without noticing.

But I thank God that He constantly reminds me how FAR FROM HIS PERFECTION I still am. This is what He did yesterday when He let something happen to my home, it wasn’t something particularly big but it was very hard to deal with and frustrating. I fell into anger, I couldn’t handle my emotions and I even started to try to find a way to blame others for what was my obvious mistake. When I examined my conscience later, I was so disappointed in myself and my behaviour. I was also surprised that I still had that flesh so strong in me.

It is so easy to fall to anger because of the illusion we have of control. We think we have control over our circumstances, that things are supposed to happen a certain way and when they don’t, we look for explanations and we get angry.

But I thank God because He keeps reminding me that I am not in control. I always depend on Him, I am nothing without Him, without His Spirit in me. This is a lesson that all mature Christians should at one point learn. We are nothing without God and there is nothing good in us, we fail and we come short. We need Him always. He is in control, not us.

We don’t have to make ourselves presentable to God by behaving good and nice. It is not about how well we are performing, how we behave externally or how good we have been lately. It is how in tune with God we are, how obedient we are to His righteousness, how dependent we are on Him, how yielding we are to His will. When we yield to Him, His will is done here on earth as it is in heaven, this is what Jesus taught us to pray.

Jesus said also without Him we can do nothing. It is because a branch that is not connected to the vine cannot yield fruits for the Kingdom, it can only yield human fruits, dead works that God did not ask for. He can be merciful but this is not His perfect will for us. The branch has to yield to the vine, it has to abide and let the Vine take over.

We cannot continue the way brothers and sisters without the guidance of God, without the Holy Spirit. We need Him always with us to guide us and in us to empower us to overcome our flesh. We have to be like little children who depend on their father, they know they cannot walk far without the hand of the father.

The child needs the parent’s hand to start walking at first. The parent will try to remove their hand to see if the child can now walk but the parent is always there in case the child falls. They want the child to know that they are there with them in case something happens. A good child knows that the parent is always there in case they fall even though they don’t want to fall.

This is the wisdom of dependence, a wisdom detested by the world because it is not self-sufficient, it is totally dependent. It is a wisdom of a dependent child, an innocent mind, a fragile and contrite heart.

I pray we learn that valuable lesson. I pray the sheep of Christ know that without the Holy Spirit we cannot continue that race. We need JESUS, always every day.

Please share with those struggling.

May God bless you