the one where God doesn't need your help

God doesn’t need our help.

He didn’t create us because He was lonely.

He’s not sitting up in heaven right now wondering what to do, and just hoping humans will come to the rescue.

He did leave the job of proclaiming the Gospel to the church… but this does not mean He needs us. In fact, we need Him in that process.

When Jesus was betrayed, his disciples took out knives to fight people with swords, and Jesus rebuked them. He could call angels… and let’s face it, He didn’t need the angels either!

So, why are we so persistant in trying to help Jesus out these days?

The Gospel message is not enough… we need to package it to make it more appealing. We need to market Jesus to make Him more attractive.

The Word of God is not enough, people won’t come to Church… unless, we make the seats comfortable and the building look grand. We need entertaining videos and colorful powerpoint slideshows.

Didn’t we see this in the Bible. David wants to make God a great big temple- but He is fine in a tent.

People will never follow God’s Word… unless we can paint pretty pictures for them… we can make clever slogans  ….we can appeal to their fleshly desires…  we make it simple…

We don’t expect people to change, we don’t expect God to work.

Even more so, we see it how we pray. We pray to give God a break, make it easy for Him to answer our prayers. We don’t pray specific, we don’t pray big. And even if we do ask for something, we cover it up with making a “good feeling” just as good as actual healing. We don’t want to corner God.

We’re afraid to ask for actual conversions- because we can’t control that.

Wait, are we only supposed to pray for things we can control?

True, sometimes we’re the answer to our prayers- but not most of the time, and certainly not all the time. If we’re praying in a way that we can answer our prayer requests- are we really praying to God?

We need to pray in a way that only God can answer. We need to pray in a way & act in a way, that if God doesn’t show up- we’re in “SUaR”  ( a whole lot of trouble).

What really got me thinking about this was K-Love. And not in a good way K-Love. I like the music, but I can’t listen to the station anymore. You say the right things with your lips, but your heart is far from God.

Their recent fund-raising(which has been extremely ridiculous before) got to a new low.

DJ 1: “How much money do you think we can raise in the next ½ hr?”

DJ 2: “I think we can get ___ much in” (can’t remember the exact amount)

DJ 1: No. No that’s too much. I know God is big, but he can’t do that much.

DJ 2: Let’s prove DJ 1 wrong. Let’s show him how big God is.

Are you kidding me?

You’re not trusting God- You’re trusting your deceitful, conniving words to work for you.

But don’t we all do something like this?

Instead of praying for someone to come to salvation, we pray for an opportunity.

- sometimes an opportunity is a big deal. In fact, I’d love an opportunity these days, and I am praying for it… but I want to pray bigger. I can make an opportunity, I don’t need God for that. What I do need God for is: boldness, courage… and for Him to work in the person I’m talking with

Instead of giving sacrificially, we make a budget, then give some money… but only while we still have a job.

Or instead of raising support, and trusting God will continue to provide, we raise more than is needed, so we always have a buffer.

And instead of just sharing the Gospel or challenging our brother, and letting God work thru that… we wait for the perfect time to speak up… we wait til we feel comfortable… we try to come up with the perfect anaology… we use methods from the latest book… we try to use entertainment.

Don’t get me wrong. We can & should use insights to the culture and people around us. We need to be wise about our decisions and actions. We need to pray in humility.

But we don’t need to help God.

He doesn’t need our help. He is powerful & able enough.

And quite frankly, our “help” can get in the way of God’s work… and steals from His glory… which He doesn’t like.

Let’s stop trying to help God, and just join Him in what He’s doing, walk by faith and not lean on our own understanding.