Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end and the result from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which have not yet been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose.’

      Whether we want to believe it or not, we are always going to be dependent on God’s grace toward us. We will never reach a state of independence but will remain in the existence of being dependent or being in dependence. Many people have been fooled into thinking they can become independent of laws, governments, and social expectations. Yes, we can move off the grid and farm our gardens to separate ourselves from the majority of the population. We can become minimalists and give away most of our belongings as well as cut ourselves off from all social platforms, the internet, and bank cards. However, eventually, we will be dependent on someone, something, or some system to get us through the next part of our lives.

      God has created everything on earth to need or depend on something else to make creation work. The soil needs the bugs, the flowers need the bees, the birds need the seeds, our souls need love and so on it goes. We are all in a state of dependency. I depend on the oxygen that goes through my lungs to keep me breathing even though I do not understand all the science involved in how oxygen is generated within the laws of our atmosphere. I am dependent on God leading me through life and eventually bringing me home to His presence. John 15:5 I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

      When Cain was being banished for killing his brother, his reaction to God’s punishment was overwhelming to him because he was losing his privilege of being dependent on God and the only society he knew. Gen. 4:14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. Cain most likely, did not understand how much he needed his brother and the relationships he had at the time. He found out how dependent he had been on God’s structure of day-to-day living. He thought he could eliminate his brother because he had become independent of Abel in his heart. Cain’s problem was that God’s laws of live and let live, so to speak, could not be resolved in his heart, because of his envy towards his brother, and therefore, Cain was blind to God’s laws.

       As the world gets smaller, because of our ability through media to see what is happening in real-time around the world, we can see that we depend on more than our neighbours to get by in life. We depend on the logistical systems that bring products of all kinds to our shores and borders. Even people who have detached themselves from society and the different jurisdictions still need to come to town once in a while and pick up the machinery or power-creating equipment that they need to remain independent. That is the rub, isn’t it? From the doomsday preppers to the mountain cabin dwellers, we all eventually discover that we are still dependent on something or someone.

      We read the story of Naaman a great general in the army of Syria but he was a leper. 2Kings 5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favour, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper. Naaman might have had a great military mind but was not independent of the leprosy that he was afflicted with nor the social problems that came with that terrifying disease. Like so many of us who need God and a healing miracle, Naaman also needed healing. As great as he was, he found out he had become dependent on the man of God to give him instructions as to how to be healed. 2Kings 5:10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

      Like Naaman, we too, need to find the Word of the Lord that will bring the deliverance we need, and hopefully keep us fully dependent on God. Let us not fall for the white-washed theory that we can be independent from God’s life-giving grace. We need to realize that God’s plan for our lives is reliant on our obedience to the One who created the plan. Isa. 46:10b My purpose will be established, and I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose. The older I get the more I see that I need my relationship with the Lord and all the people He has brought through my life. Some of the people were hard lessons to learn, and others were a pleasure to know because of the abundant blessings they have brought to my heart. May we remain In Dependence on our God and each other.