I recently listened to a seminar on rightnow.com (I recommend this site to anyone wanting to obtain a great resource in ministry) by JD Greear, and he suggested a number of ideas. It was mostly things I agreed with but never had heard them articulated so well. I've always believed that the Gospel was inherently in opposition with the world because its source is not of this world. Meaning often, if not always, its teachings suggest we live and believe the opposite of what we might naturally do!
We say payback, the Gospel says love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. We say stay in the boat, the Gospel says step out!
Our thinking is different.
Consider the initial quote in this post. Too often, we consider the blessings of God as the goal and end result of a life well lived. When in reality, they are the basis for which our lives should be lived. Matthew 6:33 says to seek his righteousness first and 1 John says we ought to love because He first loved us. No longer let us think or see God's gifts as rewards at the end. Let us instead recognize them as the fuel injected into our spirits to power our lives thereafter!
God doesn't merely want our love and obedience. He wants us to desire to love and obey Him! Our relationship is offensive to God if it stems from coercion. He doesn’t want the love of trapped people; rather, He desires the love of the free who willingly submit themselves to Him and live for Him.
What does that look like? I believe this type of love and obedience looks unplanned. There's no scheme or hidden agenda. It is rooted in "because," not in "to get." Imagine if a child did their chores because it was one less thing their parents had to worry about, rather than to get an allowance. Now imagine if we applied this to our relationship with the Lord.
I’d like to challenge us all to live like we are accepted by God and not to get accepted by Him. Let's not pay God with our love, but let us love Him because of the price Jesus paid.
Dear Lord, you died and rose again because you loved us, not to get our allegiance. I pray that we may, in turn, live because we love you and not to get the acceptance already afforded to us by your great sacrifice.
Newark Ironbound Corps
I agree, our work/reward mentality definitely has a habit of seeping into our relationship with Christ. It's not always easy to remember that the reward is given to us freely no matter what work we do. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI needed to read this, this dear morning. I really love how you broke it down instead of telling us what we should do. AMEN! WONT HE DO IT!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Latroy. This was a blessing in itself for me because it actually cross references with what I was reading in my study bible's commentary section the other day. It says, "We are not saved by good works, but when we commit our lives fully to God, we WANT to please him and do his will. As such, our good works are a grateful RESPONSE to what God has done, not a prerequisite to earning his grace." After reading that I still couldn't grasp the concept fully but reading your article(which I believe ties into it) has just reinforced it for me. Thank you thank you thank you soooooo much for sharing!
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