You On Every Side


Hi Friends,

It’s a cold, snowy January here in Kansas City. And while this winter has brought some wonderful things for us — hot soup on the back burner and kiddos reading on the couch while huddled under blankets — we are also rounding the bend of our second foray into the stomach bug.

Noooooo! I know. It’s awful.

It has me thinking today about dependency.

In bold below are some lyrics I sing about this, and below that are a few thoughts.

You touch my heart and cause me to thirst
By grace You draw me to the river
And now I see You are the water
It’s You on every side

Jesus is the source of both our need and our satisfaction.

It’s Him on every side.

Cognitively, we know this. We teach it to our children in infancy, right? “Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong…”

And yet somewhere in the growing up and the walking out of our faith, we can take on an anxiety–– a pressure. We walk around with a weight on our shoulders that says we should know better, do better, measure up.

We shouldn’t be so needy.

The truth remains that in the midst of all our maturing and obeying and following we are, in our core, utterly dependent upon Him. We never grow out of this truth.

We are a beautiful need for the beautiful Source.

He is behind and before, and He lays His hand upon us. He makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads us by the still waters. He restores our souls.

He prepares a feast in the presence of our enemies, and He is the very bread and wine on the table, ready for us to take Him in.

He is the all-knowing Shepherd. He is the slain, bloody Lamb.

He is the Maker who formed our souls around a “thirst” — a desire for Him.

He is the Shepherd who leaves the 99 to throw us over His shoulders and carry us in His mercy to the water banks.

And right there, after leading us to the water’s edge, He opens our eyes to see that He Himself is also the living water pooled before us, ready to satisfy.

It’s Him on every side.

Let’s lean into Him today, the source of both our need and our satisfaction, and let some of the weight come off our shoulders.

There He is again- the lifter of the burden and the giver of a new, easy yoke.

​— Anna

Anna Blanc

I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.

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