God is most glorified when we are most dependent on Him
Some of us have been duped into thinking that the Christian life is meant to be lived in our own strength.
Some of us have been duped into thinking that the Christian life is meant to be lived in our own strength.
We’re
Westerners. We like to be strong. We grow up thinking that things
depend on us and our abilities. We import all of this into our
Christianity, we believe we’re meant to follow Jesus on the basis
of our own resources.
In
short, we settle for a natural life when we could be living a
supernatural life.
WE DON'T GROW OUT OF DEPENDENCE
God
calls his people to live supernatural lives, filled with the Holy
Spirit—to live in expectant and full dependency on the living God,
believing and trusting that what seems impossible to us is possible
with God.
Just
as a toddler is meant to depend on his father and mother for
everything, we’re meant to depend on our heavenly Father for
everything. Again, we’ve been duped. We thought we were supposed to
grow out of this toddler phase. No. The whole of the Christian life
is meant to look like the toddler phase in terms of dependency—we
are to always depend on God for everything.
Why?
Because
God is God and we are not.
DON'T SETTLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
To
live a natural life is to live a prideful life. When you live life
based on your own resources, sight, and strength, you declare that
you don’t need God.
To live a supernatural life is to live a humble, thrilling, and God-honoring life.
When
you live life based on God’s resources, sight, and strength, you
declare that God is God and you’re banking everything on his
ability to come through.
Abel,
Abraham, Caleb, Rahab, Gideon, Daniel, Nehemiah, Mary, the Apostle
Paul, and the early Christians whose lives are recorded in the
book of Acts all
lived supernatural lives. Who they are and what they did makes no
sense apart from radical dependence on God.
We
were never meant to trust in our own five loaves and two fish. We are
meant to live as though, at any moment, God can turn five loaves and
two fish into something we never dreamed of.
Don’t
settle for a natural life. Live a supernatural life. Read your Bible
and see that that’s the only kind of life we’ve been called to
live.
I
believe that God is most glorified in us when we are most dependent
on him. To the degree that you live dependent on yourself, you
dishonor God. To the degree that you live dependent on God, you
glorify God.
I want to give God a lot of glory with my life. Don’t you?
Let’s
repent of our less-than-supernatural way of life. Let’s live
supernatural lives. Let’s depend, supernaturally depend, on God.
DON'T SETTLE FOR YOUR VISIONS
This
is the heart of the gospel. The good news of the gospel comes to us
in our complete inadequacy, a message of supernatural grace and
transformation for the undeserving. That’s how the Christian life
starts and it’s how the Christian life is meant to continue,
knowing our inadequacy, and Christ’s total adequacy to forgive,
satisfy, lead, help, supply, love, and move mountains.
I’m
concerned about the loss of faith that moves mountains. I don’t
think this is a faith intended for a select few. We know the living
God, the God who calls us to live in light of the fact that he is
real, sovereign, near, wise, good, and attentive to our prayers.
Could
there be anything that the enemy is more eager to do in the Western
world than trick us into living natural lives with smallish faith in
a smallish God?
We’ve
settled for me-sized visions for our lives and our churches when
we’re meant to move forward with God-sized visions.
I’m
done with me-sized living. I don’t know how I got to confusing
Christianity with me-sized living, but I did. A few years ago I
repented of that and asked God for the grace and power to trust him
like he’s meant to be trusted. I’m figuring it out, having fun,
and realizing that living a supernatural life is a lot more
interesting that the life I once lived.
God
is most glorified in us when we are most dependent on him.
God
is most glorified in us when we are most dependent on him.
God
is most glorified in us when we are most dependent on him.
Beat that into your head. Beat that into your leadership. Don’t settle for anything less.
"I
know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be
thwarted." Job 42:2
No comments:
Post a Comment