Just a Little Help From a Friend

I wonder just where Jesus ranks in our lives in terms of our dependancy on Him?  If my suspicion is correct, and also based on my own way of living, then there are a lot of Christians out there who like the idea of being in a relationship with a God who saves them, but when it comes to allowing Him control of every part of our lives--well. . . .maybe we like to be a bit more independant than that.

Allowing Jesus to control every part of who we are. . .is that even something that we should want?  After all, He provided us with intellect, with the ability to think for ourselves and to move and work and be contributors to our families and society at large.  The Bible even talks about people who don't work shouldn't eat! 

But there is still something about this idea of total submission to our Lord, something that our independant saturated culture seems to reject.  And I wonder if Christians are standing right alongside this way of living.

Jeremiah 10:23 says this: "I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own: it is not for man to direct his steps."

How can this be possible if we take the stand that we should be offering our best to the Lord and included in that is the idea of being self-sufficient, not being a burden on anyone?  Do we take this so far that we even want to be self-sufficient so as not to be a burden on Jesus?

There are other scriptures verses that talk about Jesus 'owning' us.  If we take that in light of Jeremiah 10:23 then we need to take a hard look at that independant streak in us and begin to recognize that this is part of what infected humanity at the Fall.  Independence is not all it's cracked up to be.

Jesus died on the cross so that we could be dependent once again on the One who is the sustainer of all life.  Our lives are not our own, whether we follow Jesus or not, as we were made to serve someone.  It's true that God has given us the capacity for self-awareness and thought, but even this is continuously dependant upon Jesus to sustain all things in order for us to be able to do anything at all.

Let us consider another option:  let us consider what it means to be totally submitted to Jesus and begin to allow our lives to be fully led by the One who already claims us as His own.  We can begin by asking forgiveness for trying to live on own, even if we had good intentions in mind--it is not how we were designed to live, and Jesus wants us to begin to understand that our freedom will increase the more we live submitted to Him.

Then we wait on God as He begins to retrain us as to how to live submitted to Him.  It will be a process, and will take time.  But I believe that we will be blessed as we allow our lives to reflect the truth that comes to us from Jeremiah 10:23.

We need more than just a little help from our Heavenly Friend, we need Him to take every part of us.

Jesus, we are yours.  Teach us what that is to look like.

BT