"Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. [...] And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee." Ps. 39: 4, 7
"I am the vine, ye are the branches...without me, ye can do nothing." John 15:5
Our dependence on God will be the great struggle of our lives. Even in the child of God, who is born of the Spirit, there is the capacity to set yourself squarely in the center of your life and circumstances, thrusting the burden of them all on your own feeble shoulders. Whether this is done out of pride or ignorance, the results are the same: we fall, we fail, and we lose control. It is a bitter reminder of our own inadequacies outside of God.
We would do well to remember our own frailty. God does (Ps. 103:13-14), and we should follow His example. This does not mean that you are to become a perpetual pity-party, going on and on about your weaknesses as though you were a martyr for the cause. Accounting for our frailty is to lead us away from ourselves (and our weaknesses) and towards God (and His strength). "I am weak, but Thou art strong," says the song, and that is to be the progression of our thoughts: the acknowledgment of our weakness should immediately turn into an acknowledgment of God's strength and our dependence on Him. If we turn our thoughts back on ourselves, we defeat the acknowledgment's purpose and find ourselves right back where we started, i.e., thinking that the whole show is all about us.
-Jon Vowell
"I am the vine, ye are the branches...without me, ye can do nothing." John 15:5
Our dependence on God will be the great struggle of our lives. Even in the child of God, who is born of the Spirit, there is the capacity to set yourself squarely in the center of your life and circumstances, thrusting the burden of them all on your own feeble shoulders. Whether this is done out of pride or ignorance, the results are the same: we fall, we fail, and we lose control. It is a bitter reminder of our own inadequacies outside of God.
We would do well to remember our own frailty. God does (Ps. 103:13-14), and we should follow His example. This does not mean that you are to become a perpetual pity-party, going on and on about your weaknesses as though you were a martyr for the cause. Accounting for our frailty is to lead us away from ourselves (and our weaknesses) and towards God (and His strength). "I am weak, but Thou art strong," says the song, and that is to be the progression of our thoughts: the acknowledgment of our weakness should immediately turn into an acknowledgment of God's strength and our dependence on Him. If we turn our thoughts back on ourselves, we defeat the acknowledgment's purpose and find ourselves right back where we started, i.e., thinking that the whole show is all about us.
-Jon Vowell
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