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Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus repeatedly emphasized His deity, simultaneously being fully God and fully human as God incarnate. While some people assume that Christ's deity made Him immune to temptation and completely self-sufficient, the Scriptures clearly state otherwise. Specifically, Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15 reveal that while Christ never gave into sinful temptations, He still experienced them and the suffering they cause us. Furthermore, John 5:19 records Christ's declaration of complete dependence on God the Father in all things, demonstrating an unspeakable level of humility considering His deity and membership in the Godhead.
Unfortunately, despite our immense need for it, many of us fail to imitate this crucial dependence on God. While refusing to fully surrender our lives to Him negatively impacts them in many ways, it is especially detrimental to the effectiveness of our labor for His kingdom. Because our availability for effective service requires our complete dependence on Him, it is crucial that we identify and surrender the hindrances in our lives that obstruct it.
One such obstacle is self-centeredness. Ephesians 6:5-8 note how godly servitude requires our work to not be done for receiving attention and earthly rewards, but solely for pleasing God as a bondservant of Christ. Unfortunately, the former attitude can easily become our underlying motive when serving in church or helping others. While such self-centered works may outwardly appear good, James 3:16 notes their impurity and the displeasure they bring God. Fortunately, Philippians 2:3-5 proclaim that our conceited motivations can be overcome by relying on Christ's providence of self-emptying humility and unconditional love for others. Although self-centered motivations severely impair our works, deliverance from these poisonous attitudes is found in complete dependence on Him.
Another major obstacle to us effectively serving God is our outer man. In Romans 7:7-25, the Apostle Paul discusses the internal war between the spirit and soul that violently rages within all believers. In verses 22-23, Paul notes how our spirits, while always desiring to obey God, are hindered in serving Him due to our flesh leading us into sinful thoughts and actions. Paul further explains in verses 19-20 how this internal war causes us to be torn between the godly, obedient desires of our inner man (the spirit) and the fleshly, sinful desires of our outer man (the soul), with the latter side often succeeding in our lives due to our weakness. Fortunately, Ephesians 4:22-24 reveal that our outer man's influence can only be broken through depending on the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and enable us to live according to our new natures in Christ. Thus, because our flesh hinders our obedience to God, true service to Him solely comes from our outer man decreasing in our lives and Him increasing in them through our inner man.
One other obstacle to our effective service is our reliance on our own strength. Many verses such as Philippians 4:13 and Isaiah 41:10 proclaim God's desire to strengthen us when we serve Him. Unfortunately, we often strive to serve in our limited strength, only for us to hinder His work through unnecessary exhaustion and burnout. Fortunately, God never expects us to serve Him this way, for from Him alone comes the strength necessary to obey and serve Him. Because of this, 1 Chronicles 16:11 commands us to constantly seek His strength and presence. Furthermore, Psalm 73:26 proclaims that even when our strength fails, God can fill us with His own and enable us to continue in our servitude. Thus, because we lack the strength necessary to serve God, complete and humble dependence on His is mandatory for effective service.
If even Christ, despite His deity, completely depended on the Father in all things, how much more do we require this dependence for our effective service to Him. When we ignore this great need, we only permit obstacles such as our self-centeredness, outer man, and limited strength to severely hinder our service. Conversely, it is only through a complete and genuine surrender of our lives that God can deliver us from these obstacles and fully use us for effective service to His kingdom.
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