Reliance

“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”

― C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer


Reliance. Everything relies on something, believer or unbeliever.

Pay Check
Employer
God
Money
Boyfriend/Girlfriend
Husband/Wife
Friends
Air
Religion
most dangerous: Self

I feel like reliance and trust are the biggest trials and struggles we have as believers and every time we think we got it down, our feet are wiped out from under us and we land flat on our butt (sorry very blunt here).

Recently that has been my struggle. I was forced to leave all my friends, I have no job, no money, and so I get to sit at home and think about it while I look for a job. My closest friends, those who saw my heart, are like a fading memory. I try to imagine them, try to put myself back in time with them and I am losing that ability and I have never had that happen before. I'm not someone to just live where i'm at but that is how it is going this go around and honestly I hate it and don't at the same time. I like it cause in some ways it seems less hard but in others it is hard cause i don't want to lose them or forget about them. Are they even real?

Reliance.
"Briana, you can't rely on people. You can't rely on TMC. You can't rely on IBEX. You GOT to rely on Me!" Oh but it is so hard. Why? Is it because we can't see our Father? We aren't honest enough with Him? We aren't in the Word enough or don't talk to Him enough? I think it is a combination of these things.

Search your life. What are the things that you rely on and be honest with yourself and you might be surprised with what you really are relying on.

I didn't think I was relying on those people for my joy and contentment but now that they are taken away I think I was. My life isn't over just because i'm not with them, because i am back to solitude and singleness (dont worry i still haven't dated. :) i mean singleness in a broad term). I have a temporary job of watching an old man to make sure he doesn't get out of bed, to change him, to feed him etc. There are three other residents in the home and sitting with them today was just another reminder of how short life is and how it is rather very unappealing. As i drove the hour home on this sunny day, I had to remind myself that my purpose is not for me. . . the reason I am here is because there is a loving God who has a plan for my life, and yes, it is going to be hard, confusing, seemingly pointless at times but I need to rely on Him because that is my JOY, my contentment, my life.

No soul can be really at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us. Feelings may change, and will change with our changing circumstances; doctrines and dogmas may be upset; Christian work may come to naught; prayers may seem to lose their fervency; promises may seem to fail; everything that we have believed in or depended upon may seem to be swept away, and only God is left, just God, the bare God, if I may be allowed the expression; simply and only God.

- Hannah Whitall Smith -

I'm gunna end as I started, with C.S. Lewis. "Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done." Join me will you. Make it a goal that when you get up in the morning to tell the Lord that you choose to rely on Him today.

Rely.