Most people do not seemingly rely on God.  Don’t get me wrong, they very much need Him, but they do not actively think about needing Him.  As an example, there was a major storm yesterday and as a result, many tree limbs fell, which caused power outages.  People did not have electricity, so no lights or power for the refrigerator or overhead garage door openers, etc.  In this area, these kinds of things do not usually last very long.  More than even just a few minutes is rare where I live, but it can happen.

Many people were without power for 16+ hours, which is likely long enough to render everything in your refrigerator or freezer inedible.  But this should remind us that we are blessed to live in a time of refrigeration, which allows us to have food that needs refrigeration to last longer.  But I doubt most people think about the fact that throughout most of human history, people have not had access to any refrigeration other than that provided through nature(i.e. by God).  And when it is 90 degrees outside, there is not much natural refrigeration, although if you go underground, you can avoid at least some of that heat.

No power on a 90-degree day also means no air conditioning.  Depending on where you live, many people do not have air conditioning.  Most of Europe, other than the far southern part by the Mediterranean Sea, does not have air conditioning.  Some of the Pacific northwest does not have air conditioning, as it rarely gets over the 70’s.  There are probably other regions in the US that are similar.  Less than even just 100 years ago, almost no one had air conditioning.  We should be thankful that we have it, even when we don’t. 

Recently the power went out at night.  You might be surprised at how few things you can do inside your house after the sun sets, when there is no electricity.  This is likely on the reasons when people who lived before electricity was in people’s houses typically rose with the dawn, or just a little before, and went to bed shortly after the sun set.  You could get way more done during daylight hours.  But with the advent of the electric light bulb, and the various other uses of electricity, we are not as reliant on the sun.

When God created everything, He made the sun and moon to light the earth - day and night(Gen. 1:14-18).  The stars would also placed in the heavens, which allowed people to know how to get there before we had GPS.  These also helped to mark days, seasons, etc.  But we have calendars and smart phones and the news, etc.  As such, we are not nearly as dependent on the sun, moon and stars as people used to be.  Another way of putting that is that we are not as overtly dependent on God as we used to be.  The simple fact of the matter is that, regardless of technological advancements, we are still 100% reliant upon God.  He is our Creator(Gen. 1-2) and our Sustainer(Ps. 54:4).  He made the planet we walk on, the air we breathe, the bodies we live in, the sun that keeps us warm, the plants and animals we depend on for food, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Unfortunately, the more technologically advanced we become, the less we realize just how dependent upon God we have always been, and we always will be.

The next time you are tempted to think about how self-sufficient you are, remember that pride takes place before we fall(Prov. 16:18).  We need to remember God.  We need to thank God.  And not just for food, but everything.  He blessed us with ability and opportunity.  Without both, we could do little, if anything.  Remember Him when things are good(e.g. we have electricity).  Remember Him when things are bad(e.g. we have no electricity).  Of course, you can substitute so many different things in lieu of electricity.  Actually, you could probably put just about everything in there.  So let’s do just that.