Season 4 - Episode 41
To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.
There is a theological idea called common grace. It affirms that God’s grace, in some fashion, extends to all of humanity, even all of creation. This theological idea says that we all rely on God’s grace, which gives life, sustains, and even holds back unrestrained evil and destruction in the world. It affirms that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” (James 1:17) While we all rely on the Giver of life, there is a difference between fundamental reliance and conscious, embodied reliance. A cat that is fed from an automatic pet feeder may be reliant on its owner for food. But it may not be aware of that reliance. Whereas a pet who sees its owner fill the bowl every day has a conscious, embodied reliance, demonstrated through their urgent, directed pleas for sustenance when the bowl is inconveniently empty. That is a somewhat crude image for what we’re talking about in today’s Covenant Weekly. We’re talking about Relying on God in this Covenant Weekly for June 14, 2025.
Relying on God: We confess our dependence on God for everything, and seek to deepen our intimacy with him by living prayerfully.
At first blush, to “Rely on God” seems to be about getting what we need. When we’re hungry, we rely on God for food. When we’re broken, we rely on God for healing. When we’re afraid, we rely on God for comfort and strength.
God does provide those things. And we are grateful. We are encouraged to rely on God for our needs - present and future.
The challenge with this interactive process is that can reduce our reliance on God to a transactional spirituality*. God become our supplier more than our Father, brother, friend, confidant, etc.
Our articulation of what it means to rely on God is intentionally relational. It confesses that we do depend on God for everything. But God’s desire isn’t just to give us stuff. It is to be in relationship with us. And so we respond by seeking to deepen intimacy with God by living prayerfully. And the fact that we are pursuing deepened intimacy shapes our prayer.
There is so much in a transactional spirituality that looks like this kind of reliance. At the heart of transactional reliance is a form of prayer. But it is a prayer centred on “asks” not intimacy. It is calling on God to give or act, never satisfied with being with God. To be sure, God, who is love, loves to give good gifts to his children! (Matthew 7:11) God invites us to ask. But if that’s all we ever do, we may have begun to worship God’s provision more than God. (Romans 1:25)
If our connection with God is dependent on God providing what we need (or, more often, what we want), if our prayer is reduced to us giving praise to God and receiving God’s provision, we are likely missing out on the greatest gift God has for us, intimacy with Godself.
Father Richard Rohr uses the term contemplation in lieu of “prayer” because prayer has so often been reduced to the transactional. And he describes contemplation (his term for holistic prayer) as “allowing us to see the beauty, allowing the truth, and protect the inherent goodness of what is whether it profits me, pleases me, or not.” When we can get to that point, it is the deepest sense of reliance on God. It isn’t only about what we get. It is about who God is, how that gets embodied in the world, and then about how we get to participate in it all.
One last thought on this value. We rely on God for everything. I’ve been thinking about how this corresponds with Jesus’ invitation to find rest in him.
Many of us have been told, explicitly or implicitly, that we need to achieve, accomplish, or be something to be truly accepted and loved. The consequence is that we can spend our lives pursuing those things in an attempt to validate ourselves. There are so many things that this could be: wealth, toys, experiences, popularity, beauty, affirmation, family, right theology, power, physical strength, relationships, impact…. The list could go on and on and on. And pursuing those things is a never-ending effort. There is no rest if our worth or value is tied up in those things.
In contrast, Jesus came into the world demonstrating, embodying God’s perfect love for us, including you. And he says, “Come!” Not because we’ve achieved, accomplished, or been something. But because God is perfect love and sees you as his beloved child. He invites us to rely on his never-failing love to shape our foundational identity. You are God’s beloved. We are God’s beloved. He will never leave or forsake us. In relying on God for everything, even our core sense of identity and self, we are invited to discover and enjoy deep rest.
Relying on God: We confess our dependence on God for everything, and seek to deepen our intimacy with him by living prayerfully.
Covenant Family. This is the final Covenant Weekly for this season. Thanks for tracking with it. I pray this summer will be a time of joy and refreshing for you. Join us on Sunday mornings in July and August for our ongoing discussion about the Kingdom of God. To see a schedule for the summer, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/events.
‘“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
* Transactional Spirituality is a term used Joshua Nolt’s essay about this value in the book Compelling Convictions.