A Total Dependence

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A Total Dependence

Give us this day our daily bread.

Matthew 6:11

Christ would have us learn our total dependence upon God. Human nature, philosophy, and reasoning lead us quite another direction. We like to consider ourselves as independent, self-reliant, and self-sustaining. Christ teaches us to pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ This underscores our humble dependence, our daily dependence, and finally, our total dependence. This expands a theme which we began to consider yesterday. We depend upon God every day and in every way. There is no area of our life, physical, mental, spiritual, or social where we are not utterly dependent upon God. This is why prayer becomes so important. The more we realize the depth and extent of our dependence upon God, the more we will pray. Prayer becomes our very life-breath. It is the highway of our communion with the Almighty God, Who supplies all our needs out of His endless bounty. We are totally dependent upon the God, Who has adopted us into His Family, given us promises, guaranteed our future, saved us, kept us, and will continue to do so every step of the way unto His Eternal Kingdom. As Christ instructs us to pray, He brings us to understand that this total dependence upon God is the most perfect place for us to be. It will liberate us from the evil effects of that self-sufficient, self-reliant spirit which will bring us to ruin. Today, let us pray in total dependence, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’

Our Almighty and Abundant God,
we praise You that You are utterly dependable.
We rejoice that You bear us up in every way,
and that all our dependence on You is well-placed.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning