A Dependent Heart

Independence is something we all strive for, to be an independent individual capable of taking care of themselves, and others. Sometimes we think being independent means to rely on no one but yourself, but is that really the way we are suppose to live? Who ever said dependence was a bad thing, while of course you need to be able to take care of yourself to a certain extent, doing everything on your own without any help is a pretty cast out and lonely life. There is a difference to being able to be courageous and do things on your own and inspire yourself versus thinking you can do everything without the help of anyone. I am a firm believer of growing by doing things on your own and pushing your own boundaries within yourself and having to depend on yourself. However, God is within you and within other people, He wants us to help each other, reach out to each other, support and inspire and grow together as children of God, but how the heck are we supposed to do that if we only ever rely on ourselves. I of course have done this, thought to myself I can do the task at hand with me, myself, and I, and that was it, but the truth is we can never truly do anything just by ourselves, we need God in everything we do. This realization came quite as a shock to me because I thought to myself, God is always with me so how is it possible that I am not conquering tasks without Him, and the answer is very simple, I wasn’t including Him.

God is the reason behind everything we do, and everything we are, He is in every decision we make, and while He is always with us, we have to consciously call out to Him and include Him and put our reliance on Him in the decisions we make. I think sometimes we don’t do that for the fear of feeling weak, or immature, but the truth is thinking we can be independent from God is what will make us weak. Faith begins with a promise, a promise from God and from the very start we need to be dependent on Him, through everything we do. However God knows, sometimes it is hard to feel His presence, which is why He gave us family and friends and partners in life, to be dependent on each other, and co-dependent on the Lord. How great of a feeling is it, to reach out to someone and have them lift you up and encourage you in a time of need, we get a taste of true dependence.

“Faith grows through crisis, when everything is comfortable our dependence is diminished.”

This was something I heard in church that really stuck with me, when we don’t feel like we need support or encouragement we feel we don’t need God as much, it happens to all of us. But faith is not a routine, it is not something we run to when things get hard, rely on it and then when the chaos is gone leave it alone until we need it again. It is an every day need to wake up and rely on God, to put our hearts in His hands and depend on the fact that His plan is within us. He gave us other human beings to experience His work with, to love and to cherish and to grow with. We need God, and we need other people, we need a dependent heart. We love to feel needed and we should love needing other, how happy and full would our hearts be then, it’s all there we just need to reach out and grab it, and never let it go.

So. Go out and depend on the ones you love and the One that loves us.