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There is a whole group of people out there that God is a magical ATM. What I mean by this is that God is someone who loves us and wants to give us good things, we just have to key in the right passcode. You know, punch in a few prayers and fastings and God will give us exactly what we want.
Surprisingly, many prayer meetings end up as nothing more than hoping to hit the right code that will have God act.
This is part of what’s behind the prosperity movement, and those that believe that God is out there wanting us to have an abundant life in the here and now, and all we have to do is figure out how to claim the reward.
The problem with these philosophies is that they somehow totally miss what actually happened to Christ when He was on the Earth. No one knew how to pray like Jesus prayed. No one knew the will of the Father like He did. And yet he was without a place to call home for His entire ministry. He did not have many personal possessions. He had the leaders of the day calling Him names, spreading lies, etc. And He ended up dying on a cross between two thieves– not so that we could have Rolex watches or BMWs, but so that we could be saved from sin.
But the kicker is what he told His disciples. He told them that if they persecuted Him, they would persecute His followers more. If they reviled Him, they would revile them more. He even went so far as to pronounce a blessing in the Sermon on the Mount especially for those that would be persecuted.
So, God is not your ATM. He’s out to change you into the image of His dear Son, and mostly it’s through trials and testing, not wealth and privilege.
I’ve also heard Him likened to a gum ball machine that when given quarters will pop out the blessings. It all boils down to “bargaining” and who are we to presume to bargain with our maker?
Do we really know how good we have it? Even the very poorest of us have more than many in third world countries. We have family, freedom and friends, not to mention a Father with our best (maybe not materially, but spiritually) in mind. Eternity with Him. What’s this life going to do to us, really, with that kind of perspective?
And it’s definitely easier to believe this, type it and nod my head at it, than to actively live it through out the discouragements, etc, that line my journey…but in moments of true clarity, its simplicity is both comforting and humbling.
That’s part of the reason that I think that America is not going to be the same as it is much longer. Globally– the Word of God is going out in power. Our missionary to Ukraine was at our church and house yesterday and he said that there are more Christian missionaries from other countries going to other countries than coming from the U.S.. America is not God’s chosen people, even though we tend to think that we are.
Pretty sobering. We just have it too good to know how much we need God in our lives. I don’t want that to be true!
Read Left to Tell. It’s about a woman who hides in a half bathroom for three months while the Rwanda genocide is happening on the other side of the drywall. She knows God in a different way than most of us do, and you have to conclude that she knows what she’s talking about because it is *her relationship* with God. Who can discount that?
I have a feeling that this generation will learn to be personal with God because we’ll have to. It’s either that, or there’ll be a great revival.