Saturday, 3rd October 2009
Yesterday I blogged about how many Christians wrongly picture their Daddy God as demanding and unreasonable, expecting us to give sacrificially to the point of giving up our "Isaacs".
I humbly put it to you that we should instead see our God as lavish in His giving to us, like depicted in the story of the progidal son whereby the father sprinted towards his son, hugged and kissed him repeatedly and bestowed him with the best robe, ring and sandals. In fact, the main character of that parable is not the wayward son, but the extravagant father.
In fact, God actually delights in us taking from Him more than He does in us giving to Him! This is because when we come to Him with our wants and needs, this reflects how reliant we are on Him and not on our ownselves, and indicates the value we place on Him being able to provide for us.
Why do I say this? Let's look at several examples in the gospels. Jesus is a reflection of God the Father and had said that He only does what His Father tells Him to do.
In Luke 10, we read the account of what happened at the home of Mary and Martha, Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to Him and allowing Him to minister to her. Martha on the other hand was in the kitchen busying herself, wanting to serve Jesus dinner and to minister to Him. Think for a moment, who delighted our Lord? The one who wanted to give to Him or the one who wanted to receive from Him?
In John 4, we read the account of how Jesus was in the region of Samaria. Verse 6 tells us that Jesus was "tired from his journey, so he sat down to rest at the well". Later on, in verse 31, His disciples tell Him to "eat something" which also indicates that He should have been hungry too. In verses 7 through 28, John records His encounter with a Samaritan woman. Jesus ministered to her and as a result of doing so, became refreshed, so much so that we read in verses 32-33 about how His declined His disciples' offer of food to the extent that they thought someone else had already given Him something to eat.
On several occasions, we read of Jesus rebuking His disciples "O ye of little faith" that seem to indicate that they did not take enough from Him. Never once did He rebuke them for taking too much. Peter asking to walk on water would only benefit his own self, yet Jesus did not rebuke Peter by saying, "Wah piang. I walk on water you also want ah?". Instead He beckoned Peter to "Come".
And so therein lies a paradox whereby we humans differ from God. When people take from us, we get depleted. But when people take from God, He gets refreshed and invigorated!!!
Which brings me to the verse about being more blessed to give than to receive. This is true of horizontal relationships -- it is more blessed to give to others than to receive from others. But when it comes to the vertical relationship, it is more blessed to receive from God than to give to God. After all, God already has everything.
Friends, we need a paradigm shift and not be afraid or ashamed to be extravagant in our receiving from the Lord because He gave up His Isaac for us. That is what undeserved, unmerited and unearned favour is all about. Rom 8:32 (AMP) tells us that "He who did not withold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?" All other things would include our needs and wants, no?
Speaking of needs and wants, I remember another misquotation where well-meaning believers tell us that God will provide our needs but not our wants. That will be the topic of tomorrow's post, so stay tuned :-)
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