“So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son. And the Lord said, ‘Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence. I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley’.” (Hosea 1:3-5 NLT)
It’s ironic on some levels that the very quality we long for our children to have is a quality that can stand in the way of our relationship with our heavenly Father. When our children are small and dependent upon us for literally everything, we find ourselves longing for the day they’ll walk out the door ready for a life no longer dependent upon us. Then, when they’re grown and we seldom hear from them, we long for the days when they weren’t so independent.
As adult children of the living God we’re in a peculiar position of being independent, well able to care and provide for ourselves, yet, dependent upon the Holy Spirit for virtually every detail of our lives. There’s sometimes a thin line between our dependence upon ourselves (which can border on pride), and our dependence upon our heavenly Father.
If you think about it, there is absolutely nothing we can do without the Spirit’s enabling. Jesus said in John 15:5b: “For apart from Me you can do nothing.” Oswald Chambers wrote: “Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.” Seeking to be fruitful as a Jesus follower independent of the Spirit’s leading is not only a bad idea, it can also easily lead to sin.
When thinking about our vital dependence upon the Lord, we can’t only think of our children when they were small, we’ve got to think of how often we who had good parents, turned to them for wisdom and guidance in making difficult decisions even as an adult. Dependence upon the Lord in every detail of our lives doesn’t negate our ability to think and formulate reasonable plans. It does however, open the door to sinful pride that essentially says: “I’ve got this, I don’t need your help.”
Think of the bull-headed two-year-old grabbing a toy from a sibling or friend while screaming: “MINE!” Our whole orientation as a Jesus follower is to be ever growing in our likeness of our Savior who said in John 5:30: “I can do nothing on My own. I judge as God tells Me. Therefore, My judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the One who sent Me, not My own will.”
That’s our goal, not to become more independent of our Father, but in an ever-increasing measure to become more like Him. Chris Brown reminds us: “You can’t be grateful for what you feel entitled to.” In a lot of ways, we have an ongoing battle trying to keep balance between what we can do, with the Lord’s help, and what we must not do as we grow in our likeness of Jesus.
That’s why it’s so critical to keep in constant contact with the Spirit’s leading. Throughout our day there will come times when we believe we see clearly what we can and should do in any given situation, but we can’t assume and we must not fall back on “what I’ve always done,” but must submit our request to the Lord. Even a quick “Father, please give me wisdom to make the choice You would make if you were in my shoes,” is far better than making the wrong decision and having to live with the consequences.
For a believer in Jesus our independence should drive us to dependence upon our heavenly Father.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 