I have an idea for a new national holiday…an observance of a principle so key to human joy and satisfaction that I’m amazed no one has yet suggested it. My holiday would be called “Dependence Day,” and it would be celebrated 365 days a year, year after year, until time ceases to be measured.

Probably the reason no one has suggested Dependence Day before now is that we’re celebrators of independence, not dependence. But we are meant to rely completely on One who loves us like no other!

In Hosea 13:4, God says to Israel: “You were to know no God except Me, for there is no savior besides Me.” God illustrates His pursuit of His wayward people through the life of prophet Hosea, who pursued, married, was deserted by and then rescued a faithless prostitute named Gomer.

Hosea pursued Gomer-gone-bad for the same purpose God pursued Israel: He meant to do her good. He means to do us good, too. John Piper writes in The Pleasures of God:

“God is like a highway patrolman pursuing you down the interstate with lights flashing and siren blaring to get you to stop – not to give you a ticket, but to give you a message so good it couldn’t wait till you get home.”

If we believed this to be true, we’d be lining up to surrender to God’s pursuit…but we are not. Why not?

Here’s why: We value our independence more than we relish His care. We long for freedom from authority more than we long for protection from harm. We’re more comfortable with self-sufficiency than we are with surrender. And the end to our arrogance is not good: “It is your destruction, O Israel, that you are against Me, against your help.” (Hosea 13:9)

So how do we go about declaring “Dependence Day?” Hosea instructs: “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord…”

What kind of words?

Words that say “I’ve stumbled.”
Words that say “You are my hope.”
Words that confess all others have failed us.
Words of thanks for His freshness and beauty and strength…

Words that might sound something like this:

“God, I do depend on You for everything…even my next breath. I cannot do one thing without You. You provided a way for me to know You by sending Your precious Son Jesus to die. You give grace for living the Christ-life, too, and keep right on forgiving and cleansing me. You are my hope, my strength, my security, my song, my hiding place, my rock, my fortress, my defender, my friend, and the truest lover of my soul. Today I declare Dependence Day. I renounce my prideful, pretend-independence, and confess my overwhelming need for You. Help me to cease striving and know that You are, indeed, God – and I most certainly am not. In Jesus’ holy name…Amen.”

© Leigh McLeroy 2002