God makes a lot of promises in His Word, but nowhere does He promise us happiness. He does offer joy, but joy is always a result of our relationship with Him. Joy can exist in the midst of great trouble. God’s greatness does not depend on our emotions. His power is undiminished even if we ignore Him. His authority is unchanged even if we don’t believe in Him. His love is steady even if we don’t return His love. He is not dependent on our love, our prayers, our belief or our knowledge of Him.
God was God before there were people or an earth for us to live on. He will be God no matter how we treat Him. So our love, prayer, belief and knowledge of Him benefit only us, not God. The feelings of love and closeness to Him are an extra blessing He grants us. Think of Noah, the only man on earth to still believe and follow God. How discouraged he must have been, all those years building the ark during a time when no rain fell and those around him mocked and scorned his work.
At God's direction Elijah hid from King Ahab. His time away from people must have been a time of closeness with God, with God’s faithfulness manifested twice a day, when the ravens brought him food. But how lonely he must have been, to awaken every morning knowing that he would not hear a human voice or feel the touch of another’s hand.
If you go to God only in the good times, or because you experience a good feeling, you go to Him for the wrong reasons. If you go to God only in the bad times, when you need help or are in crises, you go to Him for the wrong reasons. We should go to God not because we want or need something, but because He is God. He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and He is our Father who loves us. We should simply desire to be near Him. In the process, we’ll end up being blessed.
We have two dogs. One is silly and foolish, but if you call her, she comes. She will sit next to someone who is tired or upset. The other dog is sly and wayward. If you call him, he ignores you, or walks back slowly. But if you say “Want a cookie?” he runs right in. He doesn’t really want to behave or to be close to his people. He doesn’t want to please and he doesn’t feel more than a selfish love. He loves what we offer: a cookie. So if we go to God only to get something, we treat Him like the cookie-god.
1 comment:
I am learning this hard fast these last couple of weeks. No matter what we are going through, going to Him because He is God, not because we want or need Him is So important. Loving Him because He is God and not because He is the giver of blessings is so important.
When we look at Him selfishly and not with love for Him, we are not doing it right. It is when we humble ourselves before Him, acknowledge that He is our Creator that we truly please Him.
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