Our Need of Dependence

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 7
There are many "ifs" in Scripture concerning our walk. What do they mean? Surely they are meant to keep us in constant dependence upon the Lord, in the sense of our own weakness. For example, we read, "If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Heb. 3:6, 146But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (Hebrews 3:6)
14For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; (Hebrews 3:14)). An illustration may help. A mother takes her little child for a walk along a path near the edge of the cliffs, and says, "My child, if you let my hand go, you will fall over." Will that mother loosen her hold of her child's hand in such a dangerous place when she speaks thus? Ah, no; but she wants the child to be conscious of its own danger and its own weakness, and so to hold her hand as to cling entirely to her. Thus the Lord holds us by our "right hand" (Psa. 73:2323Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. (Psalm 73:23)), and wherever He may lead us, whether on the boisterous sea, like Peter, or where the mountains are being rent, which was too much for even faith like Elijah's (1 Kings 19:1111And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: (1 Kings 19:11)), He still holds us, He will not let us go; but He wants us to hold fast to Him, to rely on His all-sufficiency. He may even allow us to begin to sink so that, conscious of our frailty and our nothingness, we may look to Him and carry His Word in our hearts to the end of the journey.