::games people play::
I love playing games. I love making up games to play with certain people. I love playing fun games with fun people. But there are some instances where it is ABSOLUTELY not ok to play games. It is not ok to play games with your teacher when they are lecturing. Or with your parents when they are grounding you. Or with God...ever.
But I totally play games with God, like all the time. I'm pretty sure that we all do. And these games are not fun but we play them in order to stay in our own comfort zone, but in the end they only lead us farther away from the Lord.
Game # 1: Create our own Jesus.
Have you ever heard from Christians or otherwise the following statement or variations of: Jesus would not ask me to do________because he wants me to be happy and that would not be conducive to my happiness therefore he would not really want me to do that. Unfortunately, this Jesus does not exist, but sometimes we re-create our own Jesus. We mistake God's love for us as meaning that because he loves us, he has to do everything he can to make us happy. BUT as Matt Chandler put it, "God is more interested in your joy and in your holiness than in your happiness". After all, the Bible says that there is a way that seems right unto a man but the end leads to destruction.
Game # 2: Redefine Grace.
What is grace? It is unmerited kindness. It is not an excuse to do what we want to do because we think grace abounds. Paul confronted this very issue with the early Christians. He says in Romans 6:1-2
What should we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Game #3: What ever God has called you to or from isn't really that big of an issue so obedience isn't really that important.
This is probably the game that I most frequently play. This is how it ends up looking:
God: Eva, I am asking you to go right.
Eva: Ok God. I understand what you are suggesting but this is what I'll do instead. I won't go right but I will go left so much harder than I would have ever gone right. You'll see ☺
In other words. God, you are calling me to confess and forsake this sin in my life. I am not going to do that but don't worry. Here's what I'll do. I will tithe 50% and go to church 11 times a week and read my bible 13 times a day but I will not do that thing that you are asking me, ok? It's as if God is in heaven and he's like, Hmm, that sounds like a good trade! Sometimes I wonder if God laughs at how silly we are. I have to remember that obedience is better than sacrifice.
Game #4: I know that you are God but I think I actually have more wisdom on ______.
This is pretty self explanatory. Rather than seek God's wisdom on a certain subject we say "Omnipotent God, I acknowledge that you are the creator of the heavens and the earth and that through you all things are held together...but I am pretty sure that my wisdom surpasses yours on this particular subject. So I will just do what I wanna do and it will end up just fine." And God is such a gentleman--he doesn't force us to do anything we don't want to do. He lets us make our decisions, which inevitably fail and send us back into his arms, where he knew we'd end up the whole time.
I'm so thankful that the grace of Jesus abounds, even when we play these stupid games.
But I totally play games with God, like all the time. I'm pretty sure that we all do. And these games are not fun but we play them in order to stay in our own comfort zone, but in the end they only lead us farther away from the Lord.
Game # 1: Create our own Jesus.
Have you ever heard from Christians or otherwise the following statement or variations of: Jesus would not ask me to do________because he wants me to be happy and that would not be conducive to my happiness therefore he would not really want me to do that. Unfortunately, this Jesus does not exist, but sometimes we re-create our own Jesus. We mistake God's love for us as meaning that because he loves us, he has to do everything he can to make us happy. BUT as Matt Chandler put it, "God is more interested in your joy and in your holiness than in your happiness". After all, the Bible says that there is a way that seems right unto a man but the end leads to destruction.
Game # 2: Redefine Grace.
What is grace? It is unmerited kindness. It is not an excuse to do what we want to do because we think grace abounds. Paul confronted this very issue with the early Christians. He says in Romans 6:1-2
What should we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Game #3: What ever God has called you to or from isn't really that big of an issue so obedience isn't really that important.
This is probably the game that I most frequently play. This is how it ends up looking:
God: Eva, I am asking you to go right.
Eva: Ok God. I understand what you are suggesting but this is what I'll do instead. I won't go right but I will go left so much harder than I would have ever gone right. You'll see ☺
In other words. God, you are calling me to confess and forsake this sin in my life. I am not going to do that but don't worry. Here's what I'll do. I will tithe 50% and go to church 11 times a week and read my bible 13 times a day but I will not do that thing that you are asking me, ok? It's as if God is in heaven and he's like, Hmm, that sounds like a good trade! Sometimes I wonder if God laughs at how silly we are. I have to remember that obedience is better than sacrifice.
Game #4: I know that you are God but I think I actually have more wisdom on ______.
This is pretty self explanatory. Rather than seek God's wisdom on a certain subject we say "Omnipotent God, I acknowledge that you are the creator of the heavens and the earth and that through you all things are held together...but I am pretty sure that my wisdom surpasses yours on this particular subject. So I will just do what I wanna do and it will end up just fine." And God is such a gentleman--he doesn't force us to do anything we don't want to do. He lets us make our decisions, which inevitably fail and send us back into his arms, where he knew we'd end up the whole time.
I'm so thankful that the grace of Jesus abounds, even when we play these stupid games.
I love this blog Eva! I think I do game #4 a lot. But it's more like I know my wisdom doesn't surpass God on any subject... but I can be stubborn anyway :)
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