His Strength is made perfect in weakness.

The difference between a thriving relationship with God and a spiritually dry and lifeless religion is found in our dependence upon God. A real dependence, a burning in our soul and a longing in our spirit, a hunger and a thirst that cries out for God Himself , is born in the heart that see itself as completely destitute and incapable of doing anything for God. The only thing one so poor and wretched can do is to have faith in Him and completely fall upon Him. It is in our weakness that the Power of Christ rest on us. Yet, so often, when Christians find themselves made whole they step out to serve God as though their wholeness was their own doing. As though it was something that they did not receive. We can not serve God successfully from anyplace but one of humility and poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

         To serve God from our own power in our own resources is the worst deception. That is to say we are rich and have become wealthy and need nothing. And this is what we are saying when we try to go through our day without talking to God, without seeking Him and asking for His provision. This is what we say when we sit down to eat without thanking Him for what we put in our mouth as though our own strength had provided it. This is what our lives say when we don’t pray.

         If we don’t pray: if we aren’t seeking and asking for God’s will in our lives, if we aren’t asking for our daily bread, if we aren’t asking for our sins to be forgiven, if we aren’t asking to be saved from and lead away from temptation, then each of those days we are living by our own power. To live one minute without depending on God is to deny the relationship that Jesus paid such a High Price to give us. Yet when we live as though we don’t need God nor have time for God, when we go through our day as though we are rich and have become wealthy and HAVE NEED OF NOTHING we deny the very relationship he wants with us.

When did complacency replace our intimate need of God?

When did familiarity replace our hunger and thirst for God?

When did worship born out of heart felt love toward God become a religious habit?

When did we start living the Christian life by our own power and through our own strength?

When did we quit being poor and needy and desperate for God himself?
When did we quit praying?