We are to be kept moment by moment in a state of dependence, yet reckoning on the constant grace and help of God. There is not blessing, and joy, and comfort, where there is not dependence on the Lord exercised. It is not enough for victory, that in the battle we have ranged ourselves on the Lord's side. You will find the tendency of the flesh, whether in praying or preaching or anything else, is to get out of dependence on God. We may be saying true things in prayer or in testimony; but if we are not realizing our dependence on the Lord, we shall not have His strength in the battle; and the Lord must make us learn our dependence on Him, through weakness and failure and defeat, because we have refused to learn it in the joy and confidence of communion with Himself.