Dependence: May 9, 2013

Today's Word for Thursday MAY 9, 2013.

DEPENDENCE

DEFINITION:

The state of relying on or needing someone or something for aid or support; reliance; confidence; trust; subordination or subjection.

SCRIPTURE:

Who among you fears the Lord --- let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely (have dependence) upon his God. Isaiah 50:10.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5. 

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

David went from being a shepherd boy to being the King of Israel. Throughout his life he was dependent on God. As a shepherd boy he had to kill a lion and a bear to protect his sheep. In each instance he gave the Lord credit for delivering him from the problem.

When David told Saul that he would go and fight Goliath, Saul was against it because David was just a young boy. David answered Saul by saying "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the jaw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine" (I Samuel 17:37). David did not trust in his own ability and strength. He trusted in the Lord.

This was the first of many battles that David had to fight in his life-time, and through them all David never lost his trust in God. His dependence was always on his God.

David wrote many of the Psalms and in them he proclaimed how much he depended on God. For example:

"Find rest, O my soul in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor DEPEND on God! He is my mighty rock, my refuge." Psalm 62: 5-7.

When we think of depending on God we remember visiting a mother with her new born baby in Honduras. She was reading to her baby from God's Word. We asked the mother through our interpreter why she was reading the Bible to such a young baby. Her response was that she knew he did not understand now but she wanted to make sure that his earliest memory is the hearing the words from the Bible so that he would become totally dependent on God as he grew up.

Just as a young child depends on his or her parents for almost everything, we as believers in Christ need to depend totally on God. As the scripture above reminds us, we cannot rely on our own understanding. God has given us the ability to think and reason but when we trust in our own understanding or wisdom, we often find that we do not have all the answers. Our wisdom is limited, but God's is not.

When we put our trust in God we will seek God's guidance and be willing to correct our thinking and actions when they go against God's Word. One needs to learn the independent side of dependence as one walks the Christian life. We need to show our independence in our day to day living by separating ourselves from the sinful activities of this world while depending every moment on the leading of the Lord in our lives.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 1:6

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

PRAYER:

Help me today to learn more about trusting You. In all that I do this day help me to depend on Your leading and not on my own understanding. May each one in my family learn what it means to depend on You?