05/06/2007

God, remind me of this: You are all I need. In an earlier post I talked about the cost of representing God as a "granter of wishes." I am reminded today that many Christians lump their wishes into the same category as their needs. Many Christians think that they need air, water, food, and shelter. Those things sustain human life, true, but since the world is no longer our home, those are no longer our needs. Those are the things that make life on earth comfortable and continual. We gather in churches to sing that "All of You is more than enough for all of me" and that "You're all I want, You're all I've ever needed." But, here's the issue...what we really mean is: You're all I want when You're providing all that I think I need. We cling to promises that we interpret to our liking, and we preach, teach, and represent a 'Prayer-of-Jabez'-God who will 'Bless us, indeed'--and we assume this means that we will have money, things, health, nice vacations, lots of friends, and a bean-shaped pool in the backyard.

Oh, God, if we limit Your blessings to the kind of things that we consider valuable, what a shallow view of You we have!

This morning's sermon was about money. The implication was made (whether intentionally or not, I don't know) that if we tithe and are otherwise responsible with our money, that we will be financially blessed in return. Please, don't make the God of the Bible that small! God is not a really good stockbroker: We invest 10% and He plugs our money into all the right stocks to make us very rich! God just wants to know that we depend on Him. How He will choose to bless us is not predictable. "His ways are not our own." I get really irritated when I hear sermons that head this direction. It is a rather popular philosophy, but in the end, it doesn't make God look good, or kind, or reliable. Instead, when God chooses to bless us with peace or joy or faith instead of cash, cars, and 234 Cable TV channels to watch on our big screen, we think, "God's broken. God lied. God can't be counted on to hold up His end of the bargain." And one woman comes to my mind, because throughout my life her attitude toward God has helped to mold my opinion of Him. She is the opposite of what the world would call 'blessed', but her view of God is bigger and more accurate than most people I've met.

She has no money. The electricity and water are regularly being turned off. She suffers from a variety of illnesses and has had her share of unexpected accidents as well. She regularly has no gas money to fill her unreliable car. Her husband has been in and out of low-paying jobs. Her children wear hand-me-downs and get gloves and hats as Christmas presents. Her family lives in a house that should probably be condemned. I don't want her life...that is being honest. I want her attitude, though. I want her faith. She believes that she is 'blessed beyond what she could ever dream in abundance or in need.' Her God is SO big, and SO powerful, and SO infinitely wise. And all along, God has provided her with the blessing that He promises to Christians in Scripture: He has granted her what she needs to be sustained spiritually. If we are starving, cold, desolate, broke, and a step from death, we are abundantly blessed if we are still clinging to the Father. God desires for us to hold onto Him so tightly that our knuckles turn white...and if we do that, we will be blessed with the truth: He's holding onto us with white knuckles, too. My 'need box' is very big--but it should only be holding onto one thing--my VERY big God.