Sunday, April 22, 2012

A to Z Challenge: Rely

All of the life lessons I’ve posted about in this A-Z Challenge so far are all fine and good. But I feel like they’re a little misleading. It’s all about lessons *I’ve* learned. But really it’s not about me or my “wisdom”. I haven’t touched on the most important lesson yet. To me, this might be the most important thing we need to know in life. And hopefully we learn this lesson sooner rather than later. What is it?

We were never meant to “do” life on our own, in our own strength. God wants us to rely on Him. We all have bad things that happen to us – some worse than others. Some face fierce tragedy; others not so much. But we all have our demons, we all have our struggles, we all have our personal tragedies. I think the point of them is to point us to God. To show us that we cannot handle things ourselves. And we’re not supposed to.

I mean really. Having a good attitude, not blaming, letting go of control, being deliberate, all the way up to Q – those are all great lessons. But let’s face it, we still forget all the good we know to do. We mess up over and over again. No one can live by all those good lessons every day. We just can’t. We need a strength bigger than our own.

No matter how rich, educated, good-looking, smart or powerful we may think we are, we are not enough on our own. We need God. He wants to be our strength, our very life in fact. He wants us to rely on Him and not all those other things, including our own wisdom.

How exactly do we do that? I don’t always know. But I think it starts with focusing on Him. With going back to my letter Q and taking time to get quiet and spend a little of each day with Him. Asking Him for help and guidance. Listening to what He says to us. Continuing to seek. He is our heavenly Father. He knows we are frail. He knows we are fragile. I think if we are honest with Him and honestly seeking Him, He will lead us. He will show us how to rely on Him.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting. It is so hard to let go of the thought that we need to try to be self-sufficient.

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    1. It is very hard. We're so set on taking care of everything ourselves.

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  2. Most though provoking, a great R post.

    Yvonne.

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  3. checking in from a-z, you have a nice blog. Some are so cluttered and the type is small. Thank you! Like your thoughts on God and family. I, too, have learned I can't do anything of value without God's help. We are so small and finite. That's why he calls us his CHILDREN. :-)

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