Growing Towards Dependence

Independence is an important mark of physical development. When children are born, they are completely dependent on their parents for everything. But as months and years progress, children become increasingly self-reliant as their minds and bodies develop at a rapid rate. They take great delight in taking actions themselves, because growing abilities are accompanied by a growing sense of control over their own lives. Growing independence in children is also valued by their parents, who enjoy their diminishing physical workload: fewer diapers to change, less spoon-feeding at mealtimes, fewer occasions to buckle a carseat, etc. Eventually, fully-mature adults are able to perform complicated actions like driving a car, taking on the demands of a career, and establishing a separate household from their parents.

As much as physical development grows towards independence, spiritual maturity grows in the opposite direction. The entire story arc of Scripture teaches us to deeply distrust our own personal abilities to navigate life, beginning from Adam and Eve’s disastrous decision to eat the forbidden garden fruit. The necessity of complete reliance on God is also explicitly taught in both Old and New Testaments. For example, as the prophet Jeremiah rebuked his generation for their idolatry and the “stupid” shepherds of the people who did not inquire of the Lord, he prayed this: “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10.23). In Matthew we are encouraged by Jesus to ask for our “daily bread” (Matthew 6.11). In 1 Peter 2.2, the apostle Peter instructs us to consider ourselves as helpless newborn infants, screaming urgently to obtain the satisfying milk they require. Later in the same letter, Peter commands us to “humble” ourselves under God’s mighty hand, “casting all your anxieties on him” (1 Peter 5.6-7).

Unlike a human parent-child relationship, God does not only carry us, feed us, and clothe us at the beginning of our connection with Him. There is no expectation that we will progress past a point of total dependence on His power and wisdom. Yes, mature Christians are expected to have their “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5.14), but this in no way suggests a lessening of our need for God and His further training. After all, Job was a giant of righteousness before his trials pushed him even closer to God (Job 1.8, 2.3). Yes, mature Christians are expected to possess strength within them, but that strength entirely originates “in the Lord” and “in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6.10).

An “I can do it myself” attitude is cute in a one year old who is learning how to walk by himself. But just as Moses told the Israelites: “you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son…” (Deuteronomy 1.31), so it is that God invites us to trust Him to completely carry us.

~Nathan Combs