I feel compelled today to write about dependence and trust.

I believe that we develop true closeness to God and to Jesus not just when we talk with Him more and more, but when we actively lean on Him and trust Him no matter what. Just like in human relationships we can talk, talk, talk - but it’s when the rubber meets the road, when times are tough and we see on whom we can rely, we see who sticks with us - the relationship with our Lord is the same.

When we actively rely on Him rather than trying to do everything ourselves, we experience the act of trusting. Not talking about trust, but actually trusting.

And when He provides, we experience trust.

But if we are always doing, doing, doing, forcing our own results in our own power and striving, we don’t grow in relationship with Him, because we didn’t rely on Him!

We did it ourselves.

I shared in a small group Thursday night that sometimes I feel like I use a crowbar on shut doors. And while persistence and hard work are admirable - and usually success comes over time with persistence and hard work - and Proverbs talks about diligence and riches versus laziness and poverty, it also talks about overlaboring from the morning till the night.

Sometimes in today’s success-driven and success-rewarded world, ambitious people like myself (and possibly you) are persistent and hard working to a fault, to the place where we are striving and we eventually burn out.

Because God didn’t create us with endless energy and even when we think we are “making it” on the outside, our stress from pushing, pushing, pushing is clogging our hearts, fatty-ing up the liver, and filling our joints with inflammation.

Is that the reward of true success, or of striving to do the impossible - in our own strength?

I think I have a tendency to “make things happen” - and maybe you do too - but isn’t that a lot like Abraham and Sarah using Hagar to birth Ishmael, instead of waiting patiently for God to provide Isaac?

Is that a lot like Jacob stealing the blessing from his brother Esau, instead of just living his lot in life (and probably succeeding wildly as an honest man, instead of succeeding with ill-gotten riches by lying and hiding?)?

Just because I *can* doesn’t mean I should.

So even today, if God has a plan that takes time to germinate, but I work, work, work to force open a door He has allowed to stay shut . . .

Does it not delay His plan?

About 1 ½ years ago I received a prophecy with a date when certain things would occur . . . .

It was about a 9 month wait.

During that time I took some things into my own hands, willfully ignoring God.

The certain things occurred - but one month late.

Consider these scenarios in the Word:

I Samuel 30 is about David coming back to Ziglag and finding the Amalekites had pillaged the town and taken his wives and children and the wives and children of the other fighting men.

Verse 8: And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

Notice the dependence on God.

David didn’t just go fight.

He asked God.

And that allows that God might have said, no. Stay put.

But God said Go.

And now in verses 18-20 we see: 18 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.

19 And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.

20 And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.

That occurred out of dependence on God!

I consider Elijah in I Kings 17:

Elijah prophesied that there would be no rain for several years.

Then God told him in verse 3: 3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

5 So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

God provided for Elijah, by commanding the ravens to feed him!

Then the brook dried up and God said to Elijah in verse 9:

9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

You can continue reading there, the Sean Mize paraphrase is that the widow woman was getting ready to prepare her last meal with her last food, and then her and her son were prepared to die.

But Elijah told her to prepare him a cake first . . .and that the meal and oil would last.

It lasted many days.

Then the son became sick to death.

Then Elijah prayed for him and he lived.

And the widow woman concludes in verse 24: 24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.

From Elijah’s perspective, that’s dependence and reliance on God!

Now consider each of these cases . . . David at Ziglag, Elijah at the brook and with the widow woman, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego refusing to bow . . . Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac (the promised one), believing God would raise him from the dead . . . sheer and utter dependence.

Can you imagine that as a result of becoming truly dependent, truly and completely trusting God, that their relationship with God grew deeper?

I believe so.

My own trial of the prior 18 months before 6 months ago instilled in me a much, much deeper relationship with God - and I believe it was not just the time I spent with Him, but the sheer and utter dependence on Him to provide solutions.

Even now, my faith is being tested and I am writing this as a response to contemplating about dependence and trust! And I truly believe that as I depend on Him and not myself, as I trust Him for solutions instead of crowbarring them . . . I will grow even closer to Him AND he will provide miraculous results and solutions.

How much more would your own faith and relationship with God grow, if you leaned into more dependence and more trust, instead of doing it all yourself?

I’d love for you to share your own thoughts about this, as I have here, in the comments:

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