It is amazing the lessons to be learned out of life. The Lord reveals so much about who He is and how we can live for him through some of the craziest situations in life. Well to be brief, I was robbed at a local gas station this morning. I was pickpocketed by a guy as he was leaving the store and I was standing in line. He bumped me "on accident" as he left. I ended up finding him and chasing him down until he dropped my wallet and kept going. He took $20. Considering I had my credit card, military ID, Driver's License, and many prized gift cards (;-P), I consider it a blessing that just cash was taken.
At first, I was furious. I wanted to keep chasing him and see how much effort it would take to remove his arms from his torso...or how fast a man's neck can snap. I went into instant "guy" mode and was ready to tear the man apart because my privacy had been violated. That which I thought was secure, was taken. I was embarrassed and angry.
Luckily, the man got away and I am typing this in my room instead of a jail cell for attempted murder. Few friends in my life have seen me really blow up. This was one of those instances. And as much as I appreciated the $20...it was my entire tip from work last night...I realized that the thing that made me furious was that what I thought was secure, was proven to not be so. I was made a fool of. And this got me thinking about my relationship with Christ.
Friends, many of us have the perception that God uses us by taking and stealing our rights, our privacy, our dreams, our lifestyles...I could keep going. We see God as a needy being who doesn't appreciate us, but only wants us to appreciate Him. And in order to appreciate Him the way He desires, we have to give up anything and everything so we won't be distracted in our total appreciation of Him. We see God as a robber. He holds our happiness prisoner and demands a ransom to get it back. And that ransom is our whole life. Many of us treat our walk with God in this way. That God is a taker, and what He does give, He only gives in order to receive something later on. Our view of God is one of inconsideration and selfishness. I challenge you to evaluate yourself and see if this is not how you think sometimes.
But the Lord does not rob. He doesn't take. He doesn't violate our rights and our privacy as the man at the gas station did to me. He does not force Himself in any way. Simple way to put it is, He is the Maker of the world and we are the created. We have no real understanding of how life works. Anything we have managed to figure out, God knew from the beginning. And what we don't know, He has always known. And what we will never understand, He understands well. He holds the key to all the answers we need. We are created with a need for Him and only He can fill that need.
It is not that He forces Himself into our lives as much as we must have Him in order to understand our lives. What He gives, He gives because He loves us, not because He expects us to reward Him with service. When He offered up Jesus on a roman cross, I do not remember anyone agreeing to sign a contract first to ensure that we would follow God afterwards to ensure that Christ's death wouldn't be wasted. No, out of love alone, God killed His Son for the sake of mankind. We did not deserve His time or His thoughts...we are like ants to Him. How many of us would die for the ant species? We exist just fine without them and we don't really care about them all that much. God could have chosen the same, yet in incredible love and grace, He gave up the greatest thing He had: Jesus.
God is not a robber. What we entrust to Him, He secures and it CANNOT BE TAKEN FROM HIM. That includes our salvation, that includes our prayer life, that includes our service. He does not demand ransom money to keep us enslaved to His will. No, He has offered us the chance to be with Him forever and desires that we accept His offer and conduct ourselves in such a way to make His offer appealing to those who have yet to accept it.
Do you see now? God does not take. He asks us to offer up the mess of a life we have so that He can make it beautiful and make it right. We offer Him filthy rags and He creates a colorful garment out of it. Why? Does God need a garment? Does God need us? No. Again, God doesn't need anything we have to offer. So when He asks for us to yield to Him and surrender our lives to Him, He is not robbing us. Friends, He is saving us. From the sin pit that we are so good at falling in. Without Him, we can do nothing of worth or value. And He knows that. And so He offers us a chance to link our lives with Him so that we may live fullfilled lives. As Jesus said, "I come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). Tell me, where is the robbery in that statement?
So I encourage you to open your eyes as He has opened mine. Trust Him. He does not steal from us. We have nothing worth taking! Rather, recognize that He is the God of all and He desires to step into your life and make it right because you and I messed it up. We are like dirty children and all God wants to do is give us a bath. Clean us up and make things right. Do not deny Him that. Accept His offer and let Him work in all the areas of your life...He will not take advantage of you.
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