Who are you depending on? Discovering True Dependence on Our Father

Imagine you’re on a long road trip, and your GPS keeps malfunctioning, taking you down roads that lead nowhere. Frustrating, right? Now think about your life’s journey. Are you relying on something or someone that keeps steering you off course?

Most go through life completely dependent upon themselves and their own abilities. Some become dependent on others in unhealthy ways and find themselves in damaging co-dependent relationships. Some find they need help along the way, and they become dependent upon a substance to help them along.

None of this is what God designed for us.

In the gospel of John Chapter 3, we read an incredible encounter that Jesus has with a religious leader named Nicodemus. This man was the best of the best. He was the brightest of the bright. He was a religious superstar that everyone admired.

Yet Jesus told this man that “You must be born again.” (John 3:3) In other words, Jesus told this religious expert that he needed to start all over again.

Nicodemus said, “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” (John 3:4).

We see Nicodemus depending on his own ability to reason what Jesus meant. But what Jesus was saying was too deep for this man to understand, even though he had much education and was regarded as a leader in the religious community.

Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, and He is saying to us, the same message, “we must be born again.” You see, inherent in each birth of a child, is that there is a parent that the baby will be completely dependent upon. Babies, when first born, are really cute and snuggly but they aren’t able to do much for themselves.

Babies come out of the womb COMPLETELY dependent on a parent. They are dependent on this parent for their food, for their safety and honestly, for their very life.

At Damascus House, we believe that every man in the program needs to be born again. Every man needs to humble himself as a little child and cry out to their Father in heaven. Every man needs to switch his dependence on himself to a full dependence on the heavenly Father.

Every man needs to come to a place in his life where he exchanges whatever substance he has become addicted to and replaces that with a complete dependence on his Father in heaven.

We believe that real life starts when we become dependent, not on a substance, but on a Savior and His name is Jesus.

Real life begins when we are born again and come to the Father as a child who is completely dependent on His grace, His provision and His salvation. Until we do that, we will always struggle in life and find substitute dependencies.

At Damascus House, we’ve seen men walk in burdened with the weight of their own dependence—on substances, pride, or relationships—and leave with a freedom found only in Christ. The difference is life changing.

So, what about you?

What are you holding onto that’s keeping you stuck?

Will you come to the Father today with the simple faith of a child and discover the life only He can give?

Let’s come to the Father as little children who have a complete and utter dependence on Him. THAT is where life begins.

By Pastor Don Williams
Pawleys Island Community Church
Chairman of the Board- Damascus House