Catching Us Being Good

We all have a basic understanding that God is “all-knowing”, but do we really think about what that means?  Certainly God doesn’t pay attention to every detail, does He?  Surely God overlooks my momentary lapses and my insignificant “no-harm” sins, don’t you think?

I thought that could be true until I read this:

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:13 NIV)

Ouch!  According to this passage, God is aware of everything!  Well, OK, so God sees what I’m up to, but that’s as far as it goes, right?

Psalm 139:1-4 NIV

 You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
 You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
 You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
 Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.

Double ouch!  You’re telling me that God knows my thoughts, my words?  O man, I’m doomed.  Why would God want to pay such close attention to me?  I’m not a troublemaker.  I go to church.  Why is He scrutinizing my life?  Is He trying to stack up enough “charges” to send me to Hell?  Is He trying to get sufficient dirt on me to send me into eternal punishment?

But wait a minute, God is all about love.  Scripture says:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…  (John 3:16 NIV)

And…

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  (1John 3:1 NIV)

If God loves me so much, it doesn’t make sense that He would search my life to condemn me, does it?  What if God’s purpose for paying attention to the details of my life has a different purpose than to punish me?  Instead, what if there is a loving purpose for concentrating on every detail of my life?

Parenting experts teach us to “catch our children being good”.  That is, as a parent it is good for my children if I look in on them now and then with ”praise” in mind.  Instead of looking for something that deserves a punishment, I look for an opportunity to praise their behavior. 

What if this is what God is doing with us?  What if He is paying attention to the details of our lives – even our thoughts – so that He can catch us being good?  If that’s the case, then what does “being good” look like for God?

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  (Mark 12:30 NIV)

Then what if God’s purpose in scrutinizing the tiniest details of our life is to catch us loving Him?  What if He pays attention to our thoughts to see if we love Him with our hearts and our minds?  Do you suppose He watches our every movement to see if we love Him with all our strength?  Could it be that God watches every detail of our life to see if we love Him with our whole soul?

…seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…   (Matthew 6:33 NIV)

Are you thinking about God?

Ask, and You Will Receive

A strange pairing of the kid's show "Handy Manny" and an Oswald Chambers piece inspired this post.

While waking my children this morning a scene from "Handy Manny" caught my eye. Mr. Lopart had (once again) gotten himself in trouble. You see, he never asks for, or accepts, help from others. This causes him to get in lots of trouble. Today he had gotten his arm stuck in a door he'd installed for his cat.

Oswald Chambers teaches that the purpose of prayer is to allow Christ to grow in us. The more we look to Jesus for help, the more Christ grows in us. When we try to do life on our own, we stifle Christ's growth in us.

God wants to be a part of every aspect of our life. It follows that He wants to support us in our difficulties, too! Don't be a Mr. Lopart! Turn over to Jesus all your troubles and God will engage in them. In the meantime, our willingness to seek Christ's help will allow Jesus to grow in us.

"Ask, and you will receive..." John 16:24

Don't be a Mr. Lopart!
Lon

Myth of Impact

This post is ripe for push back; however, if my premise is sound, then I don't expect any!

I struggle (regularly) with the tension between following Jesus and the felt need to measure the impact of my ministry. As a missionary, this "need" rises from the desire to encourage my supporters with inspiring demonstrations of impact. People want to know that their "investment" in my work is "profitable".

Frankly, I am making all the impact I am capable of. God uses me at His discretion. Some followers of Jesus are used for making an impact on a large amount of people. Others are used to make a large impact on just a few people. Honestly, I think the latter is more scriptural; however, the world leans toward the former. Our culture values the broader, arguably less deep, impact on more people, because, frankly, it is more financially profitable!

Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Oswald Chambers writes...
We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . , he cannot be My disciple" ( Luke 14:26 ). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, "If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me...

People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a "doormat." The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that "falls into the ground and dies"— it will spring up and change the entire landscape ( John 12:24 ).

Want impact? Devote yourself to Jesus!
Lon Alderman
www.AcornMinistries.com
@leaderlifter (twitter)