Lately God has been teaching me a lot about dependence. He has been showing me that I (and everyone) need to look to Him all the time: every day, every moment, every breath. Everything we do, every word we speak, and every decision we make should come from our Father. We were not made to rely on Him only during tough situations and big decisions. Every second of every day should be lived from a place of intimacy with our Maker.
Recently I have been reading through I and II Samuel, and I have been challenged by the way David looks to the Lord and trusts in Him. When he was just a boy he dared to fight a giant because God was on his side. As the rest of the Israelites watched fearfully from afar, David approached Goliath and defiantly yelled, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (1 Samuel 17:45). David, a mere shepherd, had such immense faith and confidence in God even as the king and his soldiers trembled in fear.
A little while later, David ran for his life from Saul, the king of Israel. As he pursued David, his faithful servant, Saul was led into a cave alone where David and his men were hiding. David was just an easy stab away from killing his pursuer and claiming the throne of Israel. As David’s men encouraged him to kill the man who had tried so hard to take his life, David listened to the voice of his Father and rebuked his men saying, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the Lord” (1 Samuel 24:6). David could have very easily taken matters into his own hands, but instead he chose to obey the Lord and trust in His timing.
In the New Testament we see another example of dependence in the life of Jesus. While Jesus walked the earth, he modeled absolute dependence on the Father. Every word he spoke, every temptation he resisted, every step he took, and every miracle he performed was done from a place of complete intimacy and trust in HIs Father. Jesus’ example of dependence can be summarized in these words that he spoke, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19).
Just like Jesus, we are God’s children made to live in dependence with our Father. So even though the World will tell you that you need to be independent, you weren’t made to be independent. You were made to live in total dependence. A dependence that brings freedom beyond belief. Walk in this freedom today.
