God's Job

I have noticed a tendency that we have in general to think of God and His role in our lives in a way that is woefully inadequate. It is very pervasive in our society at large and even seems present a lot of the time within the professing Christian community as well.

In some ways it is kind of subtle because we like to emphasize God’s grace and forgiveness and rightly so. However, we tend to adopt a belief system that goes something like this: I am free to pretty much live my life as I please (don’t anyone have the audacity to bring me up on it because that is just plain unacceptable), I can make all kinds of decisions without much regard for God’s word or will for my life, and should I find myself suddenly (though it really isn’t sudden at all) in a place where I don’t like to be (which is inevitable and shouldn’t come as a surprise at all) that I can then always simply call out to God, and furthermore, He is obligated to rescue me because somehow, we reason, that’s what He is there for. In our minds, God being God means that He is always there for us in our time of need. That’s just what He does. It’s His job! If you have a problem with your plumbing you call a plumber, if you have a problem with your electrical you call an electrician …

When we think this way, we have a good handle on some real truth. God is always there and He is able to meet our needs and He is more than able to rescue us. But, unfortunately, we are missing some real important parts. God isn’t just there to rescue us when we feel we need Him. He is there to direct our paths. God is looking for obedience. He cares for us, more than we realize, but He intends to save us from a lot of heartache by directing us and calling us to obey Him. We must be careful to understand that there is a difference between faith in God and presuming upon Him.

Perhaps the biggest problem with our tendency to think the way we often do is that we really miss out on the kind of involvement God wants in our lives. God doesn’t need a job. Nor does He even want one. What He does want is a relationship. When we confine God to the role of being our giant rescuer in times of trouble we are leaving Him out of so much of our lives, that in effect we are actually using Him. And God is not interested in being used. He wants a full-out love relationship with us. This is what it means when it says in the Bible that God is a jealous God. It means He wants our full love and He deserves it.

If you read the Bible you will find some characters in it that got themselves into the habit of thinking of God in this way (Sampson comes to mind) until one day God just didn’t show up!!!