DEPENDENT!

In today's "individualistic" society we are quick to forget the reality of life. Everything is "me, me, me" and "pull yourself up by your boot straps", but is that how God looks at it? Does He create us and then hands off? Is our Christian walk determined by the effort and strength we ALONE put in it? No, absolutely not and I believe that we forget that way too often. If we are to realize first and foremost that God is Creator than we must immediately remember that the fact that we even woke up this morning is because of Him alone. He is the one who in essence allows you "to be". Do you realize that? Life in and of itself is a blessing.

This weekend at Compass Bible Church, Pastor Mike wrapped up Hebrews with a great and encouraging yet very convicting message from Hebrews 13: 20-25
"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

22Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter.

23I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.

24Greet all your leaders and all God's people. Those from Italy send you their greetings.

25Grace be with you all."
In this ending of the book we find three key principles that Paul reminds us of in order that we might realize what I would say to be reality.

First off, we must recognize our dependence on God! Do we do that often enough? When we wake up in the morning do we give God thanks for who HE is and ask Him for strength for this very day for everything that we do? Do we understand that walking this Christian life is impossible without Him? Philippians 4:13 reminds us that we can do all things through HIM, it doesn't say we can do all things through ourselves. If you are walking in the power of the Lord your life will be radically different! He will use you for His glory and the furthering of His kingdom. But the moment that you try and do that in your own strength you will be utterly incapable.

Second we need to demonstrate a dependence on God's Word! We have the WORDS of God in our very hands...do we realize that?? Often people ask, what does God want me to do, why won't He just speak to me....HE IS! HE speaks to us through His Word. We must take advantage of the opportunity we have before us, to gain wisdom and knowledge from the Word of God and to hide that in our hearts so that when trial and temptation or opportunity to share the Gospel come our way we will stand firm! We must be in the Word daily and meditate upon it. Often times Christians look at "quiet times" as a burden or a must, but turn the perspective around for a minute and look at the reality of what it really is and quickly you find that it is a privilege and a blessing and should be a "want".

Lastly as Christians we must also realize, as Paul did, that we are dependent in a sense on God's people. We need each other! We need each other for encouragement, for spurring each other on and sharpening one another. We need to realize that we have a common bond that unifies us, grace...we have both been plucked from eternal despair into a life of eternal hope. And in that as we seek to serve the King and do ministry etc. we need to come together and glorify God working alongside one another. As it talks about in 1 Corinthians 12 we are all part of the Body of Christ, given different strengths and weaknesses, and we need one another. The problem? We are sinful beings and therefore people always fail us and always let us down. It is easy to trust and depend on the two perfect things above (God and the Word of God), but when we are to depend on imperfect things it is much more difficult. But we must not forget that God is working in and through believers to will and to work for His good pleasure. He is equipping each of us for His purpose and He uses us as believers in the lives of one another.

Thinking about all of this really puts into perspective "reality". We aren't independent. We don't get to do things on our own, we don't "arrive" so to speak on our own, we don't come about on our own, we can't grow on our own, we can't succeed on our own, and we can't even BE on our own...we are dependent on ultimately God for it all! Can we recognize that today and everyday? Can we remind ourselves daily of this to thank God for who HE is and for who HE has made us? Can we affirm our dependence on Him? May we NEVER find ourselves depending on ourselves because in the end we will find it is impossible to do anything apart from Him because we are DEPENDENT!