THE NEED OF DEPENDENCE.
Is God known, loved and trusted? If He be, the heart will delight in the most absolute dependence upon Him; if not, such dependence would be perfectly insufferable. The unrenewed man loves to think himself independent-loves to fancy himself free-loves to believe that he may do what he likes. Alas! it is the merest delusion. Man is not free: he is the slave of Satan. It is now well-nigh six thousand years since he sold himself into the hands of that great spiritual slave-holder, who has held him ever since, and who holds him still. Satan rules man by means of his lusts, his passions and his pleasures. There is no freedom save that with which Christ makes His people free. He it is who says: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And again: "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8.)
Here is true liberty. It is the liberty which the new nature finds in walking in the Spirit, and doing those things that are pleasing in the sight of God. The service of the Lord is perfect freedom. But this service, in all its departments, involves the most simple dependence upon the living God. Thus it was with our blessed Lord, the perfect Servant.