Hosanna Restoration Church

There are a lot people and things in this world that want us to trust them. They want us to trust so that we ultimately go beyond trust to dependence on them. Advertisers want us to try a host of different things and often they will end by saying, “you can depend on us.” God does not want us to depend on anyone or anything but Him.

The Apostle Paul was working very hard at helping people understand that they could have a perfect relationship with God through Christ. He wanted them understand that what God did in his life and through his life was not out of the ordinary, but rather Christ intended it to be an example of what was available to everyone. Paul acknowledged that he was working very hard to get this across to people and that he was depending on Christ’s mighty power working in him to get it done.

The idea is that we do the same. He wants us to come to the realization that with Christ in us we have that same mighty power just waiting to work through us. We simply need to believe it. Jesus did not die so that we would limp through this life barely holding on. Why would He pay such a high price for such a little result? Why would He come here as an example of how God desired to work through man only to leave us weak and helpless? Why would there be only a select few filled with this power, when Jesus knew they would all would die in the near future.

This is not what Jesus did at all. He said that the truth was for them and for everyone else in the future that would believe that this truth was for them as well. This is why Paul worked so hard at it. He knew that there would be a lot of people who would not believe in the power of God working through man, but he was determined that everyone have an opportunity to hear about it.

In Hebrews chapter four, the Word speaks of a rest that God had for His people. It was attainable while they were alive. They only had to go in to this Promised Land. God says that the promises did them no good because they did not believe what God told them. Isn’t this the same thing that often leaves us weak and defeated?

We are all guilty of reading or hearing the Word of God and not believing what it says to us. We allow ourselves to be kept from the truth by our own rationalizations. We analyze whether it makes sense or not without considering that God’s ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts. And so we like the people of Israel are kept from that rest and peace that God so much wants to give us. If we will determine to depend on God in every circumstance we will behold the power of Christ rising up in us and so will the world around us. We truly can depend on the Truth of God’s Word.