Follow-up from the other day

Thanks to all for your input on my question for reflection from a couple days ago. It seemed as if a lot of what others posted on here hit on some of my thoughts on the topic. I said that I'd come back and give you my thoughts, so that's what I'd like to do in this post.

The question I asked was: "Would you prefer if God made much of us or if He enabled us to make much of Him?" posed by John Piper.

This is something I've been studying, reading, praying and thinking about a lot lately. Our culture (and even some Christian teachers) give us the impression that life is all about us. Do what feels good, do what makes you feel happy. It's okay as long as it doesn't hurt anyone (or, even hurt someone if it makes you feel better about yourself). Just look at the way advertising seems to appeal to a very me-centered outlook on life. The Christian version of this really isn't all that different- God loves you, so you should expect Him to bless you with whatever you want. Forget about stuff like character development and trials, you should expect health, wealth, prosperity and life as you want it. Talk about a distortion of the truth.

The message of the Bible is clear- we were created for God and created to glorify Him. It's really not about me at all. But yet, the Bible is also clear that God loves us and acts in our best interest.

So, here is what I've been learning: God loves us enough to allow us to make much of Him. He had every right to simply look past us all and allow us to go straight to Hell, but instead chose to redeem a people for Himself. He knows that our ultimate happiness rests in nothing short of Himself. If He were to give us everything we wanted when we wanted it and make much of us, then we'd miss the chance at much greater joy. I've found that real lasting joy is only found in God Himself: not His blessings, not His creation, but Him. So, God creating us for His glory and our desire for happiness are not at odds; they meet together in this amazing, mysterious thing called faith.

Is it easy? Not yet... I still find myself struggling when things don't go my way. I'd love to be able to humbly submit to God, but it takes effort. Just recently I felt as though God was blessing me with something new in my life, but things didn't exactly turn out as I had hoped or thought they would. So, it's taken some fighting and reminding myself to keep perspective and realize that it's not all about me. If I have God, then I can be content no matter what else happens because He Himself is our ultimate joy and treasure.

I've found this truth to be incredibly freeing, but at the same time, radical and difficult. For most of my life, I have looked to people and things to find happiness (and have been let down again and again). It's a matter of retraining the way I think and feel and having to lean on God as I seek to embrace this truth. A lot of times it's a matter of using the Bible to remind myself of things, instead of listening to the lies around me and even the ones in my head.

Anyways, probably enough to digest for one post. If this topic interests you, I'll be doing a seminar on it next month at Covenant.

-JRO