Who Are You Leaning On?

This question came to mind today: Who do I lean on when hard times come? Do I lean on myself? Do I look inside myself to find strength in difficult moments? Do I look at other people? Am I depending on someone else to lean on - which is not necessarily bad, but do I find all my confidence in that person?

Or do I take this prayer and say:

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. 

From the ends of the earth I call to you, 

I call as my heart grows faint;

 lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 

For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭61:1-3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I think it's very easy to want to lean on ourselves. Especially in our society where we are always told to pull ourselves up by our own boot straps, be strong, believe in yourself...not that any of those phrases are necessarily bad, but it can lead to a self reliance. And it could lead us to think that we can just do it all on our own. 

But the Bible tells us that we need Jesus. We need a Savior. If we didn't need Jesus, He never would have come to earth. If we all could have just done this on our own and just been strong in our own strength, what's the purpose of the cross even?

So the question today is this: Who are you leaning on?

Are you finding strength only in yourself, in someone else, or is your heart like this Psalm where you're crying out to God saying, "God, I'm not strong enough. I can't actually do this." There's nothing wrong with that statement. And I think that's probably one of the hardest prayers to pray because there's a laying down of pride. But the beautiful thing is that when we choose to lean on Him, our Rock, He pulls us up and reminds us that we have a Firm Foundation. 

I love that part in the Psalm where it says, "lead me to the rock that is higher than I." It makes me think of a childhood memory. My sister and I wanted to watch a water baptism that was taking place in a lake. So we swam out into the lake to watch, but we weren't strong enough to just keep paddling in the water as we watched. So we swam out to this huge rock that was in the middle of the lake and climbed up on it to sit on. There, we were able to rest, have a vantage point, and see everything clearly. 

This is a picture of how I feel sometimes in life. I feel like I'm out there in the water swimming with my feet touching the sand, and it doesn't feel very stable. But I look over and remember that I've got a Rock that is higher than I and stronger than I that I can climb up on. And so do you. We don't have to depend on ourselves. We don't have to look anywhere else. Just look to Him. He is our Firm Foundation. And when He pulls us up we are able to rest, have a vantage point, and see everything clearly.