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“When times are good, we may not think about God much.”

A thought by Chris Hodge from his book, The Daniel Dilemma: How to Stand Firm and Love Well in a Culture of Compromise (Kindle Locations 2092). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

We do that, don’t we? 

Chris says, “If our bills are paid, our family is healthy, and we have enough to eat and a roof over our heads, we might not think we need God. Everything is going well enough without him, right? So why worship God and acknowledge him as the source when we don’t have to? Most of us don’t know how to handle prosperity.”

He then says, “But when times are hard, where do we turn? When our circumstances are beyond our control, when our children are sick in a way that baffles doctors, when our retirement savings disappears overnight, when we’re shocked by the divorce papers, that’s when we turn to God for help. We know we can’t change certain circumstances, and we need supernatural power and intervention to survive them.

“If we want to overcome pride in our lives, then we must turn from being self-sufficient back to being God-dependent. We must give him the credit for everything we have and acknowledge that we’re just stewards of these many blessings. God doesn’t bless us just so we can hoard a lot of money and buy stuff. He blesses us to be a blessing for others, to advance his kingdom, to reveal his love through the gift of salvation in Christ.”

So, how do we show our dependency on God?  Chris says, “Like so many aspects of our relationship with the Lord, it begins with prayer. God’s Word says, ‘If [God’s] people . . . humble themselves and pray’ then he will hear us and forgive us (2 Chron. 7:14). The act of simply coming before God in prayer indicates a willingness to surrender ourselves to him. Have you ever thought about the atheism of prayerlessness and contrasted it with the way we all cry out to God in a crisis? True dependence on God relies on prayer as a consistent lifeline—every day and not just when the going gets tough.”

So, when do we pray?
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