When Paul and Silas were in prison the Philippian jailer asked them, "What must I do to be saved?" This is what salvation really means—giving ourselves up to God, taking ourselves out of our own keeping, and entrusting ourselves into His keeping (Acts 16:31). God wants to take care of us. He can do a much better job of that if we will avoid a problem called independence, which is really self-care.
The desire to take care of ourselves is based on fear. This is a revelation lesson for me that I share with you. Basically, it stems from the idea that if we do it, we can be sure it will be done right. We are afraid of what might happen if we entrust ourselves totally to God and He doesn't "come through" for us. I really didn’t view it that way but that is what this Scripture verse (Acts 16:31) has revealed to me. The root problem of independence is trusting ourselves more than we trust God. Oh my goodness… I don’t want to be like that… can I get a witness here?
We love to have a back-up plan. We may pray and ask God to get involved in our lives, but if He is the least bit slow in responding (at least, to our way of thinking), we are quick to take control back into our own hands. Is that called tug-a-war trust? What we fail to realize is, God has a plan for us too—and His plan is much better than ours.
If you are in charge of anything whether it is your home, your job, your class work or a ministry you know that even in being responsible and doing good a person can become askew to God’s Word and dependant on self. We eat daily for physical nourishment and I recommend for myself reading God’s word daily for spiritual nourishment. (Matt 4:4) Spiritual starvation creates independence and I’m learning that is not a place of trusting God.
A pearl to string: Reading the Bible is not just an intellectual activity; rather it is an act of “going to school with the Holy Spirit”. When we pray we are the ones talking to God but when we read His Word He is the one talking to us.
Have you heard from God lately?
Releasing my own keeping……
Know you are loved,
Lyndi
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