“Lead me, ’cause I can’t do this alone.” I love that line from a Sanctus Real song, called appropriately enough, “Lead Me”. It’s good advice.

I think our culture has sold us a bill of goods. We’re taught that you can do it alone by yourself. You don’t need anyone else because you are strong enough and you can be a lone warrior. You can do anything you set your mind to, if you only believe in yourself and try hard enough.

I think not. I can’t. I’ve seen all the disastrous results of my own self-help, especially when it comes to spiritual matters. My sin management only leads to more sin. My efforts to try harder to be more religious are short-lived and end up with me either smug and prideful or frustrated and burned out.

We need each other, to borrow the title from another Sanctus Real song. We need a community in which we can be real and authentic, where we can hold each other acountable while being transparent with each other. We need to be strong for others when they can’t be strong for themselves. We need to let others be strong for us when we can’t for ourselves.

Most of all, we need to admit and confess to God our great and desparate need for Him at all times. Our need for the gospel didn’t go away when Jesus saved us. We still need it. We’re so very prone to wander back into rule-keeping and legalism and external appearances and outward actions and to forget to mind our hearts. But what God wants is our hearts.

Lord, I come to you with a confession that I’ve pulled away and tried to lead instead of simply following You. I’ve tried to be strong when You’ve called me to boast in my weakness and allow Your strength to be perfected in my weakness. I’ve tried to advance my own agenda and speed up and enhance Your plans for me instead of waiting and preparing to receive what You wil give me in Your own good time.

Lead me, because I can’t do any of this alone. Lord, make me willing to be lead, because I can’t even do that. None of us can. But, as Oswald Chambers said once, we don’t have to know where You are leading us because we can surely trust the One Who is leading.