DEPENDENCE MUST BE HABITUAL
DEPENDENCE MUST BE HABITUAL
... Surely goodness and mercy have followed you. And you have learned that the more you have sought the more you have found. Accustom yourself to refer everything to the Lord. Do not think that you can do anything without Him. The habit of soul of looking up is of great value, because you are sensible of your dependence, and the more you depend the more the blessedness of depending will be known. You learn thus His sympathy and His power on your behalf, and though you may not utter a prayer, yet you renew and confirm the link between Him and you. It is the life of dependence that is really dependence. It is not depending when you are much pressed, but always, just as a bird always has its wings. A wise man is not one who is sometimes wise, but one who is never foolish. Thus a godly man is a man habitually so, not one who is only occasionally so. When we are not habitually cast on the Lord we are sure to miss Him when a pressure comes. John was leaning on Jesus when Peter beckoned to Him to ask Him the question. The matter of moment for you is — what is your element? If dependence on the Lord is your element, you will be out of your element, and you will feel it when you are doing your own will. The sense of dependence necessarily conveys to you the greatness of the One on whom you depend, and the imperfection and weakness of yourself. May your coming year be marked by a true life of dependence, and may it be your brightest in heavenly light, and may you seek the things which are above where Christ sitteth. It is a painful evidence of the reluctance [p. 223] that is in us to the things of God that though we have the assurance that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10), yet that we know so very little of them. But you must seek them. The queen of Sheba went to Jerusalem to seek Solomon’s wisdom. They that seek me early shall find me.