BREAKING OUR SELF-RELIANCE

2 Corinthians 1:8-9  We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
9  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

When you read a passage like this it is good to know that even someone as “great” and accomplished as the apostle Paul also went through hard times.  Sometimes while going through trials and tribulations in life we wonder if God is still with us, or if there was something wrong with us, if we lacked faith or some other reason that caused the problem to come.  But Paul’s explanation was simple – “…this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead”.

Self reliance is one of the major workings of God in our hearts, if not THE major thing He wants worked out of our hearts.  God doesn’t want us trusting in our strength, our wisdom, our understanding.  He wants us relying totally, 100%, on Him.  This is why we struggle, because we naturally lean on ourselves, on our education, what we have learned through life and experience.  But if God is not the One we totally depend on, then He is not God…He is not our God.

In another passage in 2 Corinthians Paul said:

2 Corinthians 4:7  But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

God purposely shows us, through our circumstances, that our bodies, our lives, are “jars of clay” – breakable, fragile, things we cannot fully depend on – that we may realize that the power sustaining us through life does not come from us, but from God.

God wants us depending, trusting, and holding on to Him and Him alone.  Not to words, not to teachings, not to principles, but holding on to Him, His presence in our lives.

Psalm 3:3  But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

God does not give us a shield to hold on to…He Himself is our shield.  In the midst of hardship and trouble it is nice to know that He Himself is there with us, and that He will never leave us or forsake us.  He Himself is our shield.

Whatever we are going through, through the tears and cries of our hearts, may we seek Him, and lay all our trust and hope in Him.