For in him we live, and move and have our being…
(Acts 17:28)

THIS IS MAN!

Look at how God has created us. We have the capacity to think, and to reason, and make decisions that affect us and those around us! We have only to look around and see the inventions that were initially conceived in the minds and thoughts of mankind. We have created cars for transportation, medicines to improve health, and governing bodies to maintain order and safety. People have made many of these types of contributions that reach into our lives and have made positive impacts to benefit all. You need not look far and you will realize that God has given you and me abilities, as well. We are barbers and cooks, inventors and gardeners, steel workers and truck drivers. In America, we can independently pursue our dreams and have the freedom to walk down our own paths! It is these very paths of freedom that can lead to dangers of becoming independent of the God who created us for His glory and wants us to consistently acknowledge Him as we use those gifts.

THE DANGER OF BEING INDEPENDENT!

God has given us this world to enjoy and to make godly and positive contributions in, and yet many WILLINGLY have sought paths that lead away from Him (Rom. 1:25). It’s becoming apparent that just simply being preoccupied with our own independence (and without great dependence on God) can cause us to drift from God’s will for our lives! There are so many things we can pursue independently of God. It is true that independent people are driven, but not always Spirit driven!

“This only have I found: God created mankind upright,
but they have gone in search of many schemes.”
(Ecc. 7:29)

We see a confident man by the name of Saul as he travelled on a road to Damascus. He also travelled to different places to persecute Christians. He was a man that was independent of God. He later was given the name Paul, and through many trials, came to know Jesus and realize that he was a servant of Jesus Christ. He took time — by the Spirit — to write these words:

For in him we live, and move and have our being…
(Acts 17:28)

We, like Paul, must come to a place that we realize every ability we have, God gave us! The gifts we have are to be used to be of assistance to others. Being both independent and having gifts is a thing of the past. God is wanting the body of Christ to be dependent on Him and on one another.

THE APOSTLE PAUL’S EXPERIENCE

The apostle Paul went from an independent man to a man who totally yearned for God’s will for his life. Here are the words he wrote:

I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ.
(Phil. 3:8)

His dependency on God reach a new high, as he wrote these words to comfort the church at Corinth:

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should
not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.
(II Cor. 1:9)

What dependence Paul had, and yet, he used his skills and abilities to minister to the churches. What’s your contribution to the body? It seems, during wartime, all soldiers fight, that we might please Him who has called us to be soldiers (II Tim. 2:4)!