I’ve been thinking a lot recently about dependence on God. It seems that the more I grow in faith, the more I realize the conflict between my fallen nature and my heavenly nature (see Philippians 3:20). The reality is a spiritual battle between these opposing forces. And it’s not some romanticized, glory filled disagreement. It’s a real, gritty war.
Each Thursday I help run a Dodgeball outreach at my Corps. We play Dodgeball for two hours and at the end of the night I tell a truth about God. Last night at Dodgeball I was sharing a few thoughts about sin, confession and God’s faithfulness to forgive. I broke down 1 John 1:9—If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness—and talked about how if we want to be friends with God, we must first agree with Him. And that’s what confession is, it’s acknowledging the sin that God already knows about and saying, “God, I agree with you that this is wrong, please help me.”
Anyway, it’s usually a very quiet and respectful time but last night a kid raised his hand and asked a question. This was a first for Dodgeball. He asked me how our sinning made God feel, especially if we keep sinning, asking for forgiveness and sinning all over again. To be honest I was caught off guard by such a direct, honest question. I didn’t know exactly where to begin and started talking about the difference between deliberate and unintentional sin. I talked about free will. I talked about how God knows our heart, etc. I really wish I had a short answer for his complex question. But I didn’t.
It wasn’t until I was driving home that it really hit me: God loves us enough to remind us that we are totally dependent on Him. He certainly doesn’t want us to sin but He wants us to know that the only way we can be righteous is to be completely dependant on Him.
Much has been made about the “thorn in Paul’s flesh” (from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10) and I’ve kind of glossed over the fact that there is actually a legitimate reason why God allowed Paul to be struggle. I mean, if I were Paul, I would be pretty upset that after all my faithful service and sacrifice that God wasn’t willing to immediately deal with every one of my problems. But Paul totally gets it. He sees past the pain, past the struggle, past the frustration and anger. He sees in this “thorn” a consistent reminder that he is utterly dependent on God. And he actually delights in his weakness because He gets to see God’s strength in spite of it!
We need His grace to be sufficient with our unrighteousness. We need His strength to overcome our weaknesses. We need Him! And when we struggle we can rejoice, because God is going to deal with our weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties. So be encouraged, if you are dependent on God, you can let Him work in your life, He will be sufficient for you.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Youth Department