Independence Quandary

Hosea 10: ¹² Sow righteousness for yourselves,
    reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
    for it is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes
    and showers his righteousness on you.
¹³ But you have planted wickedness,
    you have reaped evil,
    you have eaten the fruit of deception.
Because you have depended on your own strength
    and on your many warriors

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“I cannot wait to get away from here” I thought to myself when my parents were trying to tell me yet another thing to do. As I left home, I embarked on my journey of “independence” and immediately ran into trouble. My car broke down. Not having many numbers to call, I choked it up and phoned them.

• Sometimes I wanted to be independent.
• Sometimes I wanted to be on my own.
• Sometimes I wanted to not have to be told what to do, when to do it and how to do it.

I looked at GOD the same way. I mean HE was always trying to tell me to do stuff that did not seem “fun” and yell at me for the stuff I was doing wrong. I wondered if I could be independent of HIM for a while too.

• GOD said to me “I love you, I will be right here when you return to ME.”
• GOD said to me “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
• GOD said to me “Put your trust solely in ME and your paths will be made straight.”

Storming out from GOD was similar to how I stormed out from my parents. I only wanted to contact them when there was trouble, but otherwise do my thing and never let them know if I had fallen. I wanted to do my thing without having GOD looking at me as well. BUT GOD wanted me to see HIM differently.

GOD wants me to see HIM as the only one who could save me from this degrading world. HE wants me to see just how far I had fallen and to say “I need YOU LORD” as a show of my quest to be with HIM. HE is NOT trying to harm me or control me. GOD wants to protect me but as long as my stubbornness to allow HIM to protect me the way HE wants to exists, I will fail at my own plans. I’d rather depend totally on GOD than on me.

• Are you independent?
• Do you find yourself spinning your wheels when things are not going your way?
• Can you stop trying to be independent and look to GOD to fulfill your needs?