Dependent On Our Dependable God

He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night. They asked, and he brought quail, and gave them bread from heaven in abundance. He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river. For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.

I slipped out the door of my daughter’s room and leaned my head on the scuffed-up wall in front of me. I’m such a failure, I thought as I heard my baby crying and one of my sons yelling for me downstairs. I’m failing as a mother, failing as a friend, failing at organizing our home and our schedule, failing at keeping my attitude like Christ’s.

The list could go on, but at the core is the belief that I have to be perfect. If perfection is the bar I’m reaching for, then I am failing. I am failing at being limitless. I am failing at being God. That’s because I was never meant to be perfect or limitless, and I certainly wasn’t meant to be God.

I am created; he is my Creator. I am bound by time, by the ticking of the clock, and by the restraints of my body; he is eternal, limitless, omnipresent. I am imperfect and dependent; he is perfect and perfectly dependable.

I slid to the floor as I listened to my baby wrestling herself to sleep in her crib. She was overtired, and so was I. She’s dependent on me to care for her—to provide food and protection and even to put her down for a nap. Dependent. This three-syllable word swirls around in my head. What an accurate way to view who I am too.

I am dependent on my dependable God, I repeat to myself as I walk down the stairs. Life looks different through this filter. More hopeful. More faithful. More grateful. More joy-full.

During the Israelites’ forty-year stint of wandering in the wilderness, they were utterly dependent on God. They depended on God for direction, so he led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (see Exodus 13:21). They depended on God for victory, and he taught them countless times that victory belonged to him (see Exodus 14:18; 17:15-16). They depended on God for food, so he rained down a mysterious bread from heaven called manna (see Exodus 16:4). They depended on God for water, and God provided through a rock (see Exodus 17:1-7). They depended on God for wisdom about how to live, so God provided the Law (see Exodus 20-24). They depended on God for a place of worship, and God provided the Tabernacle (see Exodus 25-40).

But their dependence did not end once their wandering was over. Once they were in the Promised Land, they still depended on God for forgiveness and restoration. They still depended on God as they waited for the promised Messiah.

Why do we think we can live apart from the help of God? Our pride persuades us we can do everything on our own strength. We think we don’t need to be forgiven because we haven’t done anything that wrong, or we don’t need God-fueled patience because we can muster it up from our own reserves, or we don’t need help because we are self-sufficient. But the truth is, we are fully dependent on God—and he is fully dependable.

I pushed up from my kneeling position on the carpet and walked into my daughter’s room, humbled by the Holy Spirit’s conviction, hopeful in the help of my fully dependable God.

Word before World We are dependent on our fully dependable God.

Grow in Grace How have you labeled yourself a failure? Does this line up with the truth of how God sees you through the eyes of grace? How can you change your perspective to focus on God’s dependability to forgive, provide, guide, and offer a fresh start in Jesus?