SpOL-061  INDEPENDENCE?

How many self-made men and women do you know? The truth is, of course, none of us really make ourselves. We begin life as the tiniest speck inside our mother’s womb. We are born so feeble that we would perish within hours if we were left on our own.

But once we approach adulthood we like to think of ourselves as independent, as able to make it by ourselves. We crave freedom, and we often think being free means living any way we want and doing whatever we please.

We human beings, it seems, find it very difficult to admit the simple truth that we need help.

One of my favorite scriptural passages says: "It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture" (Psalm 100:3) NIV.

How true this is and yet how hard it is for us to admit that we belong to him – that we are the "the sheep of his pasture."

Sometimes only the feverish crises of life, when it is almost too late, seem to motivate us to admit that we need help – God’s help.

We seem to feel we have every right to do as we please, and yet paradoxically, we're unhappy. Going our own way and doing our own thing doesn’t bring the deep fulfillment and satisfaction that we all crave.

We're like sheep going astray, but the good news is that – in spite of our wild blundering through life – God never stops loving us.

In Romans 5, verses 8-10, the apostle Paul wrote, “… God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (NKJV)

God never gives up on us. He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks. We just need to open the door and let him in. Without God our lives are empty and unfulfilled. But God made us for the very purpose of sharing his life with us – the joyous and full life shared by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus Christ, the Father’s beloved Son, we are made full members of God’s household. Through Jesus, God has already made us his own, and has bound us to himself by his love in such a way that he will never let us go. So why not believe the good news, turn to God in faith, pick up your cross, and follow Jesus Christ? It’s the only path to true freedom. 

I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE.