Recognizing Our Dependence Upon Him

August 6, 2025

“We don't have the right to claim that we have done anything on our own. God gives us what it takes to do all we do” (2 Corinthians 3:5, CEV).

My mother, Sandra Hart Christian, was a published poet and an insatiable reader. She had a deep reverence for creation—drawn especially to the mountains, trees, and most of all, birds. In her thirties, she pursued higher education with determination, and over the course of a decade, earned her BA, MA, and MFA. She went on to teach English at Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, leaving a lasting impact on countless students.

She embodied the very qualities I now strive to cultivate in others through my work at Aspire Leadership, where I serve as Director of Research & Communication (click on the “Aspire Leadership” link on my website to learn more). Curiosity, humility, and empathy—these were not just ideals she valued; they were the foundation of how she lived.

Much of who I am today is a reflection of her influence—her love, her guidance, her example.

Isn’t that true for all of us? That we are shaped by those who came before—by the voices that challenged us, the hands that lifted us, the lives that modeled grace and perseverance? Each of them, I believe, is a gift from God, placed along our path to help us become who we are meant to be.

I recognize that my mother played a profound role in shaping who I am—how I think, how I perceive the world, and how I treat others. But I also understand that behind her influence—and the influence of my father, my friend David, my wife, my children, and so many others—is the hand of God. Each one has helped me take a step closer to becoming the man of God I am called to be.

As the apostle Paul reminds us, “We don't have the right to claim that we have done anything on our own. God gives us what it takes to do all we do” (2 Corinthians 3:5, CEV).

No devotional has impacted my spiritual walk—or the lives of millions—quite like My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. It is the best-selling devotional of all time, never out of print, translated into 39 languages, and with over 13 million copies sold. Each day, Chambers’ words challenge me, convict me, and call me deeper into surrender—reminding me that the Christian life is not about striving, but yielding fully to God’s will.

Oswald Chambers writes: “Every element of our own self-reliance must be put to death by the power of God. The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power.”

These words deeply resonate with me—especially in the work I am doing at Aspire Leadership, through speaking engagements, in sitting with a grieving wife, or in the daunting process of writing and publishing my books. Until I can “recognize [my] complete weakness and [my] dependence upon Him,” I am operating under my own strength rather than “His power.”

I hold fast to the promise in one of my favorite Scriptures: “God can do immeasurably more than we can dream or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).

One day, I came across these words from Oswald Chambers:

We are living in a time of tremendous enterprises, a time when we are trying to work for God, and that is where the trap is. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus, as the Master Builder, takes us over so that He may direct and control us completely for His enterprises and His building plans…

That truth reorients everything. My calling is not to launch my own mission in His name, but to surrender—fully and daily—so that He might work through me for His mission. It’s not about crafting my own blueprint; it’s about placing the tools in His hands and becoming part of His divine construction.

It reminds me of a child who comes to their father with a handful of nails and scraps of wood, eager to build something meaningful. On their own, the pieces don’t amount to much. The child doesn’t have the skill, the plan, or the strength to bring it all together.

But in the hands of the father—the Master Builder—those simple offerings become something more. A birdhouse takes shape, then a bench, and eventually something far greater than the child ever imagined.

What’s remarkable is that the father doesn’t build instead of the child—he builds through the child. He guides the hands, steadies the frame, and supplies the wisdom. The finished work is not the child’s achievement alone, but the fruit of the father’s presence and power at work through the child’s willingness.

So, it is with us. We may only bring scraps and good intentions, but in God’s hands, those offerings become the material for something lasting, something beautiful—because He is building through us.

So, it is with our work. Whenever I prepare a message, contribute to Aspire Leadership, sit with someone who is grieving, work on the next week’s BLOG, I return to the same simple prayer I’ve prayed for years: “You Lord, not me… You Lord, not me.”

Because, as Paul reminds us, “God gives us what it takes to do all we do” (2 Corinthians 3:5, CEV).

May we recognize that every accomplishment, every breakthrough, every message that reaches a heart or word that comforts the weary, is not our doing—it is “the power of God” working in and through us.

Let us offer ourselves as willing vessels, so “He may direct and control us completely for His enterprises and His building plans.” And if we do that—if we give God the glory and the room to move—He will “exhibit His power” and do “immeasurably more than we can dream or imagine” in our lives and in the lives of others through us.

You Lord, not me… You Lord, not me.