When you are in a certain need, you will naturally resort to your own means to meet that need. Perhaps, you may tell your close friend about it. You may not necessarily inform your closed ones about it but it depends really on your level of relationship with them and your trust in them. If you are comfortable with your closed ones, you will surely not hide from them your very need at hand. For those who are in a Discipleship Group (DG), if your relationship with your DG leader is good, you may even pour out your concern with him or her. If your relationship with your DG members are good, you would be free to share with them your need too. Sometimes, you may not even want to share with anyone. You just want to be alone handling the problem by yourself, provided you are able to manage it. If you cannot manage it, then who else will you turn to when you are in a certain need?
If you are a child of God, what does the Bible, the Word of God, teach you? Still, it all depends on your relationship with God! As a child of God, besides sharing with the trusted brothers and sisters in Christ in church, who should we turn to in the very first place? This Bible verse, Matthew 6:33, teaches us that we should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, what are you assured of or promised of by the Word of God? You are promised that “all these things will be added to you.” All these things refer to all those needs of yours. Our daily necessities are provided for by God when we put first thing first! We are dependent on God for all our daily needs. I am referring to daily needs but not daily wants! What we want may not be what we need.
As God’s beloved children, let us put God as the first priority in our life this year 2020, living a life of godliness and holiness to the glory, honour and praise of God’s holy and powerful Name. Amen. To put God first is to place God at the centre of our life. If Christ is the Lord of your life, then He should occupy the first place in your life. To think of God first in all our pursuits in life, not running ahead of God but resorting to God and His Word as the best counsel of our life in Christ. To tell God your concerns and cares before telling others is a demonstration of your dependent on Him alone and not on yourself or on others. Being conscious of God in whatever things you do is reflective of your accountability to Him alone.
How do you show others that you are depending on God? To depend on God, you actually give heed to the Word of God by reading and meditating upon it and by applying its principles into your very life and ministry. Beside this, you know that God wants you to be open to the counsels of godly people: godly men and women. “Depend on God” encompasses your dependent on God’s provisions which include God’s beloved people in the Community of Faith, the Community of Believers in Christ. In addition to this, you are willing to turn to God in worship and prayer. This also reflects that you are dependent on God. Furthermore, by relying on God and trusting Him with all your heart, you are firm in your faith in Christ, not shaken by the demands of life itself. This is what I have learnt in Proverbs 3:5-6 which says that “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Sometimes, our own understanding of the situation may not be reliable or sufficient. We really cannot depend on what we do not fully comprehend. In the first place, we need to yield to God that certain need or situation at hand, recognising that God sees beyond what we see. The best thing to do is still to acknowledge Him in all our ways. When we yield or surrender to God the matter at hand, He can make a way for us. He can smoothen the path before us and for us. Amazing thing happens under the mighty hand of God!
Let us not be wise in our own eyes but always be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of God in our daily lives. When we practise the presence of God with us throughout the day and week, we are conscious of the things of God so much so that in all that we think, in all that we do and we say, we will ensure that we please God and bring praises to Him. All these become a reality when we make a deliberate effort to regularly spend time with God whom we love and obey with all our hearts and lives. In essence, this is all about seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I have learnt all these in Proverbs 3:7-8 which says that “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” Fearing God is that reverence trust in the great and almighty God who knows what He is doing and who knows what is best for His beloved children.
“Depend on God” is about living the life in the Spirit rather than in the flesh, submitting and subjecting to the Lordship of Christ in our journey of faith in Christ. To God be the glory, honour and praise! Amen.
