Radical Dependence

"He said to them, 'Whenever you pray, say:

Father, Your name, be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us...'" (HCSB, Luke 11:2-4a)

I was reading scripture this morning and it occurred to me that there are two needs clearly seen in this passage, of which we cannot meet on our own: physical and spiritual dependence.

Physical Dependence

"Give us each day our daily bread". This conveys the idea that we all, every single last one of us on this entire planet, need Him to give us what we need to survive on a daily basis, this includes all of you who think you have enough material wealth to provide for yourselves. We may not recognize it, but it is He who gives us breath just to wake in the morning and sleep throughout the night (Job 9:18), He who formed us and decides that we live another day (Psalm 100:3), He who provides us with strength (Psalm 28:7), and He who provides us with our every material need that we have and knows the needs even before we do (Matthew 6:25-33). Our God provides our every single physical need.

"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (HCSB, Philippians 4:19).

Spiritual Dependence

"And forgive us our sins." We are all in need of a Savior. If you think that your money, your fame, your family, or your "righteous living" will save you're sadly and eternally wrong. Jesus said in John 14:6, that He "is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through Him". End of story, but there is hope; there is a promise. Romans 10: 9 says that "if you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord", and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Many who believe and have confessed, go through life with the idea that they are saved from the eternal fire...alleluia! End of story, right? Wrong! If that is how you are living life, you are living your life for you, a life dependent upon what you want, what is right for you, not dependent upon the God who saved you, who gave his only Son up for you. You are not living a sacrificial life for Him, you are living a selfish life. I do it too! I am not innocent of this claim. That is why it says in Luke 9:23-25, "If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will save it. What is a man benefited if he gains the whole world, yet loses or forfeits himself?" We must learn to let go of our selfish desires and work towards lining our will up with God's not trying to line God's will up with up with ours. How selfish of us!

We are all dependent upon the Lord for our physical and spiritual needs whether we admit, believe, or live our lives based on it. Yet, if we chose to live our lives acknowledging our full dependence upon the Lord for our every need, our lives would look radically different!

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