Thursday, May 6, 2010

God - or vending machine?

I've had some conversations lately that have caused me to really think about what I think about...I know, that's a rough beginning to this post, but, bear with me.
We, as human beings, have this startling capacity for self-deception.

We can talk ourselves in to believing just about anything, as long as we agree with ourselves... I've taught the last couple of weeks in our Wednesday night youth gathering about this subject. And last night, I camped on the point that we have to be careful, because we can give in to the tendency to use the Bible to support our facades or errant opinions, because they help us create the "reality" we desire instead of the one of which we are actually a part.

So, without getting too deep into the proper interpretation of scripture and the need for context when doing so, here is the best way I know to avoid our subtle tendency to twist God's promises into our plans or false reflections of what they really are.

That tendency is held at bay if we commit ourselves to seek God. Seeking God isn't always going provide instant solutions to life's problems. However, it will cause us to realize that there is much more going on around us than the silo of ourselves. We are involved in a much bigger story! A story in which God resolves the disappointments of life in ways that far exceed our shortened line of sight.
God's ways are not like our ways, His plans, though always for our good, often don't match our consumer - get it now, mentality.
Our difficulty is that our sight is just limited enough that we can't see past the end of our own nose.

"We will seek Him, and we will find Him, when we seek for Him with all our heart."

(a couple of thoughts for this post were borrowed from an article in Relevant magazine; The Most Misused verse in the Bible, by Chris Blumhofer.)

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