Happy Dependence Day!

What are your plans for the 4th of July?

Cleaning out the garage, an outing to the beach, or a barbeque with friends?

Whatever your agenda this coming three day weekend, it’s time to pause and be grateful for the privilege of living in America. Even more appropriately, it’s time to reflect on our dependence on God for the direction and unity of our great nation.

Unfortunately, signs of disunity and moral decay, disillusionment and debauchery, abound in our culture. The only lasting answer to our neediness is a right relationship with our heavenly Father, the One true God!

Often used as a call to national renewal, the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14 come to mind:

“If My people who are called by My name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Though some authors say this passage applies only to the nation of Israel during King Solomon’s reign, and that American Christians have misappropriated it, I believe this call of God is for people throughout the ages.

It calls us to remember who is actually in control. God calls us to humbly seek Him, desire to please Him by repenting of our self-centered ways, and depend on Him.

Though the blessing of free will causes us to think we are masters of our own lives, without God we have nothing!

And the antithesis of “independence” is to understand our very real dependence. It is in acknowledging our intrinsic need for Him in all situations that we experience the power of His Holy Spirit guiding us through life’s challenges. Just as in our personal lives, our community and nation need to exercise dependence on the One who sustains us.

As we take time this weekend to be thankful for all the sacrificial acts that made this nation free and great, may we remember it was the provision of the Most High God (working through the patriots of the past) that gave us such a glorious birthright.

God calls us to dependence on Him! Without faith it is impossible to please God, and without humility it is impossible to trust Him. Humility leads to repentance, which is the doorway to true dependence. We are not weakened by depending on the One who created us. On the contrary, we are strengthened by a renewed relationship with God through Christ and promised we can do all things in Jesus’ Name.

As we celebrate this Independence Day, may we experience the unbelievable blessings of dependence and the healing of applying God’s Word.