How exciting that God invites us in. How exciting that we get to participate with God in His great ventures. He invites us into personal adventures through care and trust. There are things that God has planned for you and Him.
 
He has plans for you – good plans.
 
What stops us from engaging God and others in this way?
 
Well, you might say anger or hurt. Remember that is what stops care from happening. Or, you might say that fear keeps us from engaging God in our life. Not really, fear is what keeps us from trusting God and others.
 
So, what do you think keeps a person from engaging God and others with an attitude that displays that we are better together?
 
I think that the answer will make sense.
 
Self-reliance.
 
What is that? Self-reliance is a behavioral way of saying to those around you that you do not need them.
 
Makes sense, right? God wants to draw me in, but I don’t really need God, so I don’t engage.
 
In Luke 15 is the story of a young man who believed that he was better off doing things on his own and out from underneath the thoughts and desires of anyone else, especially those who represent authority to him.
 
So, he took what he thought was entitled to him. You know the rest of the story. Not only was there a loss in all the wealth he took with him; there was personal and soulish loss as he found himself feeling the weight of his initial desire to do it all alone.
 
He didn’t want or need people and certainly didn’t recognize the wisdom of “better together.”
 
Self-reliance is an attitude that can exist deep inside of a person. Some people have had much disappointment and sorrow because of trusting others and that trust has been squashed. Their natural response is to create a lifestyle of choosing to not trust others.
 
Some might rebuff the word “choosing” that I used. You might say, “I didn’t choose anything, it was the hand that was dealt me, this is how I was shaped.” You are no victim. You can become a trusting person if you choose to.
 
The sad thing about being a victim, in most cases, is that you have a tendency to wait for the world around you to cease to be traumatic. It won’t. We rise above the world and learn to trust others and understand that “better together” exists in God and is His plan for all people.     
 
John 13:14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
 
Better together, right?
 
Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
 
Remember, we are on our way to true love. Doesn’t it make sense that we should be uniquely and intimately involved in others lives, and they us, for true love to occur? So, if I believe self-reliance is the way I am going to live my life, I will never know the fullness of what God has planned in the way of blessings.
 
Pray that the Lord will show you how much you rely on yourself, and pray also that God would drop little nuggets of “want to” in you.
 
“Lord, I want to change.”
 
“Lord, I want to believe and live in ‘better together.’”
 
Father in heaven, how good You are to us. You have wired every person to be with others and with You. You have truly demonstrated what care is and also, what trust is. Now Lord, in community, You want us to do things together. You desire that we care and trust. Lord, move us forward in understanding the very culture of heaven. Lord, we thank You for Jesus who makes all things possible.
 
Blessings,
Pastor D