Dependance

Something I’ve learned over the past year or so is that life hurts everyone. No matter how whole and happy someone seems, everyone harbors some secret hurts life has caused. This raises questions, right? Why does God allow us to go through things that are hard or that hurt us so much that we feel we can’t take it anymore and we’d give pretty much anything for it to be over? I can’t say I have absolute answers but let’s take a look at something I’ve learned while wrestling over some of the hard stuff in my life.. I was reading Genesis..

Think about Jacob. He had to leave his family, his possessions, all that was familiar to him and go to a foreign country to people who he was related to, yes, but probably didn’t previously know. We’re not told if he knew the language, but I definitely get the impression he left with only a walking stick and the clothes on his back. Granted he had participated in some stupid stuff with his mother scheming behind his father and brother’s backs. So he has to leave as a consequence of that. All his comforts are stripped away. In the beginning of the journey he is on the way to the unknown and he is alone.

Or think about Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery. Again, he gets sent to a foreign country. He’s a slave, he doesn’t speak the language, he doesn’t know anyone. He definitely didn’t know where he was going and what was gonna happen. I’ll bet he wondered where God was in it all. What about the dreams he had had? How was this in-keeping with them? He was supposed to be bowed down to, not exactly what happens to slaves. All his comfort zones also get stripped away. Both these men are left quite bare with only God to turn to.

Why? Why does God lead them down such a road? Have you been in similar situations? When you feel stuff is being stripped away? When you feel there’s very little or nothing to turn to? When God is the only one left? Let’s take look at Jacob and Joseph in their foreign countries.

Jacob has an encounter with God on the way to his uncle Laban. He sees the heavens open and the angels going up and down. He makes deal with God to serve Him if God will protect him and take him back to his family. God used Jacob’s circumstances; the consequence of his scheming and all the comforts being gone, to lead Jacob to put his trust in God. Jacob comes to a greater dependence on God than he has ever experienced before. The same thing happens with Joseph. He’s in prison in a foreign country, alone, away from his family and friends. All he has left is God. And God uses the seemingly hopeless and impossible circumstances to bring Joseph’s heart to depend only on Him.

Why did these rough and bad things bring Jacob and Joseph closer to their God? Because all other comforts were stripped away. They didn’t have their parents to protect and guide them or provide for them. They didn’t have the company of family or friends. They didn’t even have any money let alone possessions. They had nothing else left. God was in serious business here. He wanted to use these men and needed them to be in full dependence on Him.
And it’s the same with us. God wants your heart to come to ever fuller dependence on only Him. Isn’t that what you want, too? God wants your heart to depend on only Him so desperately that He’s willing to go to great lengths to reach your heart. Just look at what Jacob and Joseph. I believe God did not want them to suffer, but He desperately wanted their hearts’ attention. So sometimes He has to strip comforts away to get your undivided attention. When you’re going through something hard keep these truths in mind:
God is on your side. He is not out to get you, He’s out to help you and bring you into ever deepening dependence in Him, an ever deepening relationship with Him.
God has your best at heart. He says so in His word. (Jeremiah 29:11)
The trials will not get so hard that you can’t handle it. God has always prepared a way out.(1 Corinthians 10:13)
Victory is promised. Jesus has already won. (James 4:7)
You are safe. (Psalm 105:14-15, Zechariah 2:5)

Ultimately, doesn’t it make you joyful to know He is leading you into deeper dependence on Him ( James 1:2-4). Focus on Him in the hard times. Something that comforted me one morning when everything felt hard and I felt like I was doing nothing right was a song by Out of Eden:

“… instead of all this worrying and wondering
here’s what you should do:
know He’ll see you through
He cares for you and you should know
He’ll never let you go..”
Out of Eden/ All You Need

Venturing Forth

It’s better to stay in the safety of the camp than venture forth on a wing and a prayer. Who knows what dangers lie ahead? This was the counsel of the ten faithless spies sent in to have a look at the Promised Land when the Jews came out of Egypt. Only two of the twelve, Joshua and Caleb, saw things differently. Their hearts were captured by a vision of what might be and they urged the people to press on. But their voices were drowned by the fears of the other ten spies and Israel wandered for another forty years. Without the anticipation of better things ahead, we will have no heart for the journey.

One of the most poisonous of all Satan’s whispers is simply, “Things will never change.” That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to “make all things new.” Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean “we have no clue so don’t even try to imagine,” but rather, you cannot outdream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation. We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope.

Julia Gatta describes impatience, discouragement, and despair as the “noonday demons” most apt to beset the seasoned traveler. As the road grows long we grow weary; impatience and discouragement tempt us to forsake the way for some easier path. These shortcuts never work, and the guilt we feel for having chosen them only compounds our feelings of despair.

John Eldredge: The Sacred Romance , 156–57