Utter Dependence

On the first page of the notebook I use for morning devotions and prayer, I've written these words from J. A. Thompson's commentary on Deuteronomy 8:2-3: "already during the forty years of wandering God had taught Israel utter dependence on him for water and food. Hunger and thirst could not be satisfied by human aid but only by God. The need for such divine provision in the hour of their extremity could not but humiliate the people. Without the divine word the food itself may not be available. nothing was possible without him, and even to eat they had to await his pleasure."

The fact is, I'm just as dependent on God for water and food as were the people of Israel in the desert. God provided for the Israelites through a continual daily miracle for forty years. He has provided for me and my family through his providential circumstances, also for many years. God wanted the Israelites to remember their utter dependence on him, so he used an extremity of need and a miraculous provision to capture their attention. Still, they forgot. How much easier is it for us to forget when God is supplying our needs through ordinary, mundane ways.

It's even more difficult for us to learn our dependence on God in the spiritual realm. We can exist for months —going through the motions, perhaps even teaching Sunday school or serving as an elder or deacon—depending on nothing more than mere natural human resources.

If I'm dependent in the physical realm, how much more in the spiritual realm, where our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12)?