**********
"Religion says, 'If you do this, God will do that' (and the other way around)."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 82.
There are few things in this world that set us up for failure, and ultimately victim thinking, than does thinking that what I do will guarantee someone else to react in ways that meet my expectations. This kind of formula driven life doesn't work with relationships with people. Why in the world do we think it will work with a relationship with God?
I can't tell you how many Bible based preachers I have heard speak in ways that make it sound like God is obligated to give us what we want if we obey what He tells us in the Bible. What is so amazing is that their formula driven messages are based on scripture. Take a look at how one such scripture with me now.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Malachi 3:10 (NIV)
I have heard countless messages that go something like this. Test God with your tithe. Give your tithe to God and He will bless you. It isn't that the preachers are making this stuff up. That's what today's reading says. Give to God what He asks and you will be blessed.
I have no doubt that what God is saying in today's reading is true. If I follow His ways, including giving to Him what He asks, I will be blessed. It is when I allow my expectations as to what that blessing is to look like, be what God has to meet, that the potential for failure and victim thinking enter the picture. It is when I apply a quid-pro-quo kind of approach to God's Word that misunderstanding and ultimately victimization is going to be the result.
You see, God is God. He can do whatever He wants to do, whether I obey Him or not. He might choose to bless me with the kinds of provision that I want as part of my life as a result of my choosing to tithe to Him. He might just as well choose to bless me with something that doesn't even come close to what provision might need to look like in my life. It isn't that God doesn't bless us that is the problem. It is that we expect God to bless us in a way that we choose. When we allow our expectations to be what we look to for proof that God is a man of His word, that this world just doesn't make sense.
I hate to be so blunt about this, but putting my expectations on God's shoulders sounds more like a demand to me. If God is who He says He is, who am I to tell Him what to do. Yet that's what I do as I take scripture, turn it into a formula and then expect God to hold up His end of the bargain by meeting my expectations. That's such a victim thinking way of relating to this God that loves us.
It is when we let God be God that victors have the potential to live this life with the kinds of power and perspective needed to make it in this world. Letting God be God happens when we shelve our expectations and let Him bless us in the ways that will best serve His plan for our lives.
I don't tithe because I'm going to get something back from God that I want. I tithe because I have been given something I can never repay. Before I ever knew what a tithe was, I was been blessed with a mercy, the value of which far surpasses any financial well being I might want in my life. Maybe that's what our reading today is talking about. When it comes to blessings that result from giving God what He asks, maybe our blessing is God Himself! Maybe I need to be asking myself if I think God is enough of a blessing or do I expect more from Him in my life?
Victim thinking can't help but to be the result as we let our expectations be tied to scripture in ways that look to be formulas. The reason for obedience can never be about what we think we will get in return. When we try to put our demands on an all powerful God, we might find ourselves in places where what we receive is less than what we expected. Those are the times that the kinds of doubts that make victim thinking a reality in our lives really creep in.
All I know is that God is so much bigger than my expectations. Of course I am going to go to Him and ask for His hand of provision in my life in ways that make sense to me. What I'm so tired of is experiencing the frustration of failure when my obedience isn't rewarded with expectations I thought God had to meet because of what I think His Word says.
Maybe we need to take what God says in His Bible in a way that gives God a bit more freedom to work in our lives. That can only happen as we make what God says He will do in our lives less about our expectations and more about His loving plan for who He made us to be.
Don't miss the power of God's hand in your life. Make obedience to what God asks something that allows what God shows you be a gift from Him, not a demand from you. Your status as a victor can't be built on expectations. You are a victor because of what God has already done in your life, not what He will do as you attempt to live this life following Him. Allow God to be God in your life today. Lay down your expectations and be blessed in all you do today as you live out your standing as God's Child.
No comments:
Post a Comment