"It does not matter whether you are predominantly a person of strengths or weaknesses on the natural level. You may be the most competent person in your field, but you can be sure that if God is going to use you, He will cause you to feel keenly your dependence on Him.
He will often blight the very thing we feel confident in, so that we will learn to depend on Him, not on ourselves."
"If God is going to use you and me,
He will bring adversity into our lives so that we, too, may learn experientially our dependence on Him."
-from Trusting God (Even When Life Hurts) by Jerry Bridges
If you have felt the sting of God's love through His grooming process, then this thought from Jerry Bridges makes perfect sense. It hurts. But, it's supposed to hurt so that we can find our Savior, so that we can learn to need Him. Thus, we rest assured that everything that comes our way has been sovereignly ordained by a good God. Like an infant, we learn trust.
"As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you." Isaiah 66:13
This is one of my favorite Bible verses and all the more since I've become a mom.
Trust. Dependence. Refuge. Comfort. LOVE...
...just a few of the words used to describe our parent/child relationship with our Father God. He is the best parenting role model. He encourages me with His kindness, forgiveness, and availability to me and I find myself dependent. How much farther was I from Him when I found sufficiency elsewhere?
And so I pray, "Lord, make me more like you!" knowing full well that my plea comes with a cost. How I long to become more and more like Him and yet the road is rough. This journey I signed up for isn't easy. It's hard. It requires chiseling, pruning, dependence.
"His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love."
Psalm 147:10-11
