Category: Bible Study

Healthy Dependence

Published on by Kim

“It is healthy to be dependent.” Sam Allberry

Allberry said the quotation above in a podcast discussion about how physical frailty is a reminder of our spiritual dependence. Needing others reflects how we need God.

We do need God. Culturally and naturally we may struggle with that truth, but as children of God we acknowledge it as truth (even if we show it less well some days than others). We need Him for our life, eternal and otherwise. We rely on Him for each breath and each action. We rely on Him for grace to get through each day, to love Him and our neighbor at all.

But even after we fully acknowledge and demonstrate our dependence on God and joy in trusting Him, there’s still the needing others bit. Really? Must we? Isn’t God more pleased when we take care of ourselves?

Personal responsibility does please God. At the same time, personal relationships please God. He is the One who designed humans to live a communal life (Gen. 2:18). He is the One who designed the church as a body of believers, growing and ministering together (Eph. 2:19-22; I Cor. 12). We are not islands. We need each other by divine design.

So, the next time we need help and don’t want to ask for it, let’s see it as an opportunity to be more healthy and live our divine calling as human beings in community.

Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
    But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecc. 4:9-12)

Plenty of Provision

Published on by Kim1 Comment

Our previous blog post talked about hospitality from a position of plenty rather than want. Today, let’s take that one step further and discuss how a mindset of plenty applies to the rest of material life.

What if you can’t find enough chicken or ground beef in the store for all the meals even for your family this week? What if your job is in jeopardy and you aren’t seeing future financial stability? What if the economy does collapse?

My sister had this to say after reading that previous post:

“I think the most important thing for me to remember is that whatever I have IS enough… [When] thinking about how to feed my family or how to make the house payment, I have to get to a point where I can believe that if I can’t make my house payment or feed my family, THEN, in that moment, I still have enough. Whatever He gave me is enough…because that is the circumstance [in which] God has put me in that moment, and if He’s sovereign over what I have, then what I have IS plenty.”

Amen! God is not blind or absent. None of the circumstances in our lives or around the globe are a surprise to Him. His supply chain is not unexplainably interrupted. Our needs are well within His capability.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)

And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. (Luke 12:22-31)