In his classic book called Prayer, Dr O. Hallesby wrote: ‘Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only those who are helpless can truly pray…Prayer therefore consists simply in telling God day by day in what ways we feel helpless. We are moved to pray every time the Spirit of God…emphasises anew to us our helplessness, and we realise how impotent we are by nature to believe, to love, to hope, to serve, to sacrifice, to suffer, to read the Bible, to pray, and to struggle against our sinful desires.’ Now let’s be clear: feeling helpless is different from feeling hopeless or worthless; it’s simply acknowledging our total dependence on God. Jesus said, ‘Without Me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5 NKJV). God will never give you an assignment that does not require His input, His favour, and His enabling grace. Every action of God in your life is designed to increase, not decrease, your dependence on Him. If you can do it without God, you should stop and ask yourself, ‘Is this truly of God?’ Paul wrote: ‘We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us’ (2 Corinthians 3:4-6 NLT). David enjoyed all the privileges of being a king, yet he wrote: ‘I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer’ (Psalm 40:17 NKJV). So, the word for today is – never, ever, lose your sense of dependence on God.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.