Do We Depend on God?
When we turn to the scripture we find the following regarding how we should depend upon God:
Matthew 18:3-4 “3And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
I
Peter 5:6-7 “6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he
may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon him; for he
careth for you.”
We depend on many things. We depend on food, water, air and a properly
functioning body to sustain our physical lives.
We should depend upon God in the
same way. With God, and his providence
those things that we need to sustain our physical lives would not exist. But God is not only our Creator and Sustainer
of life thorough his providence He is also the giver and sustainer of our
spiritual life through his son Jesus Christ:
“Who
being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” Hebrews 1:3
So what does it mean for us to
depend on God? How do we do that? When we look at the definition of this word,
depend, in a current dictionary we find several different meanings. We will review a few.
“Depend” means to be contingent: Whatever a child does is contingent upon his
parents. A little child cannot feed
himself or prepare food to eat. A little
child cannot take himself to the doctor when ill. A little child depends upon his parents for all
of his needs and comforts. We depend
upon God the same way:
II Peter 1:3 “According
as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue:”
“Depend” means to exist by virtue
of a necessary relation: God’s
existence is not dependent upon us but our existence is dependent upon
God. Both our physical and spiritual
existence depends upon him. In the
physical realm man has no choice, without God’s providence, he would cease to
exist. But in the spiritual realm God
has given us a choice. In ordering our
lives as Christians we need to be like the man of God, Joshua:
Joshua 24:15 “And
if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods
of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will
serve the LORD.”
“Depend” means to be pending or
undecided: From our perspective
everything is pending because we are dependent upon God whether we acknowledge
that fact or not. This is what I mean:
James 4:13-15 “Go
to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and
continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14Whereas ye
know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and
then vanisheth away. 15For that ye ought
to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”
We should make
decisions based upon God’s will, realizing that the world could end even before
we lay our heads down for rest tonight.
“Depend” means to place reliance
or trust: Do we depend on people
that we do not trust. We will depend
upon God only when we trust in God.
Proverbs 30:5 “EVERY WORD OF GOD is PURE: HE is
A SHIELD UNTO THEM THAT PUT THEIR TRUST IN HIM.”
Proverbs 3:5 “TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL THING HEART, AND LEAN NOT UNTO THING OWN
UNDERSTANDING. IN ALL THY WAYS
ACKNOWLEDGE HIM, AND HE SHALL DIRECT THY WAYS.”
What is the result when we realize,
acknowledge and exercise our trust in God?
It is the same kind of relationship that we had with our parents when we
were little children. Little children
are grateful and thankful to their parents.
In a manner of speaking, in a sense they “worship” their parents. Little children seek their parents’
favor. Little children are obedient. Should we not be the same with God? How much do we depend upon God? How do we show that relationship?
Wm. L. Schwegler, Sunset