Marketing talks all about independence! “Have it your way!” “Need a moment” “You deserve Product X” We personalize, customize and trail blaze. We’ve been taught success comes to those willing to go out on their own and forge a new path. Our mood depends on how free we feel and where we’ve been able to take ourselves by our own strength.
Maybe we’ve been able to reject message of independence, and instead choose to be a person who plays well with others. So we collaborate with our friends, delve deep into the hypersocialization of Facebook, Texting, and Twitter. We aren’t independent, we’re co-dependent. Our mood depends on who’s talking to us or not talking to us at any moment of the day. We’ve avoided radical independence and allowed the pendulum to swing to radical co-dependence.
- Yes, God’s way may sound like independence. He calls us to owe no debt but the debt of love (Romans 13:8).
- Yes, God’s way may sound like co-dependence. He calls us to live in peace with one another. (Romans 12:18)
- How about dependence? Realizing without the powerful grace of God and His merciful work in our lives, we can do nothing of substance.
The Basics is about discovering 5 ways God wants us to live. Often the basics of Christianity have been: read your Bible, pray, go to church, give your money, serve in the church. But these externals miss the internal attitude God wants us to cultivate that will cause us to pursue Him. The attitude that helps me cultivate prayer the most is dependence. God desires people dependent on Him.
John 14:14 says, “You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it!”
I love that kind of opportunity! Prayer with anything attached. How do I see God do anything I ask? Answer, ask things in line with God’s will and character. Ask things “in my name.” How will I know what’s in line with God’s will and character? The answer is in John 15. Short version: Stay Dependent on God.
How do you stay dependent on God?