You know the danger of Christian Merch?
I have a beautiful canvas of a bible verse:
”Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!”(1 Samuel 12:16 NIV)
It looks beautiful, very inspiring…
But I am pretty sure very few people will realise it is a verse from right in the middle of a massive rebuke that Samuel gave Israel.
In fact, not three verses on, the nation is begging Samuel to intercede on their behalf:
“The people all said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.”
(1 Samuel 12:19 NIV)
To be fair… things looked bad for the Israelites when they got off track.
Nahash the Amorite was on a rampage, and everywhere he conquered, he gauged out the right eye of every survivor. And Israel was firmly in his sights.
So when things got tough (again) instead of calling on God, they wanted Samuel to give them a king… And Samuel relented and gave them what they wanted
The had a God King, that proved himself over and over, but the israelites wanted something else. I dare say, something they could control a bit more, a blame if things didn’t go quite right.
I think about it like this: The king screws up… we chop off his head… next!
Not so easy when your king is God…!
Anyhoo… I digress
So this got me thinking…
We have all these guiding passages in the bible:
“…love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…”(Matt 22:37)
“…live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned…”
(1 Cor 7:17)
“…Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ…”
(Philippians 1:27)
“…The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever…”
(1 John 2:17)
“…Seek first the Kingdom of God…”
(Matt 6:33)
So what happens when we take things into our own hands?
- If we do not bring our works to God?
- If we do not bring our troubles to God?
- If we do not submit our Marriages to God?
The Character of God is that He will never interfere with our free will choices. And we act as if only has to do with salvation.
But let me pose the questions:
What If… we do not bring God into our workplace?
What if… We do not bring God into our boardroom?
That is Church, and we love church, and worship, but this is Business. God is Love, but this is war. Here we have to fight fire with fire.
The Fruit of the Spirit is for my life, not for my work…
Ok… What if God steps back and gives us what we want? What if God says: “I will respect your decission. I will not be part of your business.”
What if God removes all the “requirements”: Patience, Peace, Longsuffering. But then also Love, Joy, Understanding, and with that Blessings, honour, and protections?
Imagine it like the railways or Route66 in America… When the highways went past the turnoffs to towns on the old Route66… nothing went into town.
When the railways bypassed towns, they simply dried out and died out.
Nobody killed them, the thing that fed them and sustained them just stopped…
What If… we do not bring God into our workplace?
What if… We do not bring God into our marriage?
What If… we do not bring God into our studies and school?
What If… we do not bring God into how we raise our kids?
We keep on wanting to do it ourselves, like a toddler: “Self doen!”
But what if God decides to give us what we want?
“But you are God’s chosen treasure —priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world. For at one time you were not God’s people, but now you are. At one time you knew nothing of God’s mercy, because you hadn’t received it yet, but now you are drenched with it!”
(1 Peter 2:9-10 TPT)
When we knew nothing of God’s mercy… we could go it alone… but now?
Now that we are drenched in God’s everything… How can we still try and face the world on the world’s terms instead of bringing God into every facet of our lives?
How can we risk it?
Can we be an electrician without a volt meter? A banker without excel? A photographer without a camera or a web developer without a computer?
Without God in the centre and an active part of our lives we are missing some key parts. Not just to be succesful, but to be what God needs us to be.
Back to Samuel…
Maybe my Christian Motivational Canvas is actually exactly right… Except the “Great Thing” the Lord will do is not some arbitrary request of mine, but rather that God refuses to step so far away from me that there is now way back…
