A paraphrase of an illustration by Tim Keller:
Imagine that you have some family money and someone comes along and asks you to marry him or her. But after the wedding and some time into the marriage, that person comes to realize that he or she can't get his or her hands on that family money and they leave you. How do you feel? Violated? Used? Just a means to an end? An object? Do you feel like you weren't loved for who you were in yourself? Do you realize that almost all of us relate to God like that? How do you think He feels? We've all met people who have said something like, "Oh I used to believe in God and I used to go to church and try to serve God but He didn't come through for me. I asked Him for things and He let me down and my life didn't go the way I thought it would. In other words, God has this incredible blessing bank account somewhere and I know it's there but He would never let me get my hands on it and I didn't actually want God, I just wanted His blessings. And when I didn't get the blessings, I was out of there." Do you see? You married God for His money.
What are we basing our faith and love of God on? Do we trust and love God because our circumstances are going according to plan and our lives are the way we would have them be? If so, at the first sign of turmoil, tribulation, and confusion, our first response will be to accuse God or worse, abandon our belief in Him.
Do we trust and love God because we have positive experiences when we worship and we love the emotional high that sometimes comes from being close to Him? If so, the inevitable dry times in our walk with Him when we do not hear from Him may cause us to believe that He has abandoned us or even that He does not exist.
Do we trust God because we have solid intellectual reasons for His existence and involvement in our lives? If so, a carefully constructed attack that seems to contradict those reasons might leave us feeling helpless and shaken.
Do we trust and love God because He gives us what we ask for and blesses us with peace and joy? If so, when those blessings are taken from us, we may blame God and walk away from Him.
There is a very real temptation to build our faith in God on the blessings that He gives. This faith is weak and easily accosted. How it must pain God when our love for Him is a response to the things we get from Him, rather than loving Him for Who He is. It is easy to love the gifts rather than the Giver. But a mature and unshakable faith is built on the solid rock, Who is Jesus Christ Himself. Our love for Him is the simple, humble response to His unfathomable, self-giving love for us. True faith is not built on blessings and circumstances but on the immovable foundation of Jesus Christ. May we love Him for Who He Is, not what He gives us.
Thanks for sharing a good word, Jared! I like your comment about not simply believing in God because we have "reason" to, which is a place I often find myself. I am challenged to remember what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.
ReplyDelete-Jesse D.
Good stuff, Jared, although I'm a little troubled by Keller's saying "almost all" of us relate to God this way. I think there are plenty who don't - it's just that we're looking for them in the wrong places because those who have really been with God are like the wind: powerful, but often unpredictable, and difficult to see. I guess I'm forced to agree that they are the minority, but we should look for them fervently so we can walk in their steps.
ReplyDeleteLR
I don't think he meant that our relationship with God is characterized by that, just that we all sometimes relate to God as if He is simply someone to get things from. I know I daily struggle with approaching God to receive things from Him rather than to give myself to Him because of Who He is.
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