In Dependence

Dependence... we all begin our life depending on our parents to nurture us and to care for us until we can do so ourselves. At a young age they feed us, bathe us, and shadow us so that we are safe. But the older we get, the closer we get to a point where we don't want our parents to help us. Maybe it's the fact that we want to do things ourselves, or maybe we just want to make our own decisions. Either way, a lot of us strive to become more independent.

The same can be said about us as Christians; we all come to a point in our walk with Christ where we want to be able to control the situations that we are in—we want to be in charge. Dictionary.com defines independence as being "free from the influence, guidance, or control of another or others." Inversely, it defines dependence as, "the state of being determined, influenced, or controlled by something else".

A lot of us find ourselves in tight situations in our walk with Christ when we consciously or unconsciously try to become independent of God (we want to be free from God's control). While God has given us this right to choose between our dependence of Him or of ourselves and the world, experience will show that the more we depend on ourselves, the more we will fail. But, if we strive to be in dependence of God, we will find that the situations we go through will fit together better and more perfectly because of God's perfect timing and planning for everything.

Not only is it easy to depend on ourselves, it is easy to put dependence on worldly things. For example, when one becomes dependent of alcohol, drugs, immoral sex, pornography, etc., they are influenced and controlled by what they are dependent of. When we depend on ourselves, or worldly things, we are setting ourselves up to drown in the "deep end".

I've also noticed that the more I depend on someone to help me through a situation, the more I depend on them to help me through the next one. If I were to depend on myself or the things of this world, I would drown amongst these dependencies in the "deep end". When you are smothered by worldly things, it is hard to gasp for air and you will find that it's also much harder to stay above "water". These dependencies will not satisfy the needs that we have, in fact, they will escalate our dependence of them and make the transition to depending on God much harder.

Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. " It is hard to depend on God because of the fact that we selfishly want control, but what makes it even harder is the fact that we can't see Him. But, the more we depend on God, the more we will see His grace, mercy and control over everything. It will become easier and easier to depend on Him the more we trust in His awesome power.

When you find yourself in a situation where you feel the urge to take control and be independent of God, step aside and ask God to help you let go of the reins and allow Him to take over. You will find that when you are in dependence of God, He will take you from the "deep end" and help you depend on Him even more. Keep your eyes on Him, for He is the only one who you can truly depend on.