Monday, May 5, 2014

Does God want you to be happy?

   What is the very first thought that comes to mind for you when asked the question "Does God want you to be happy?" I'm sure that some of you would answer with an emphatic "Yes!!!" I'm also quite certain that others would have a far more negative response; something along the lines of "If God wanted me to be happy, why would he keep throwing all of this hard luck my way?"

   A ton of churches across this country are teaching that God wants us to be happy, healthy and wealthy, while entirely missing the main purpose of why we're here in the first place. It's a very popular teaching, as can be seen by the size of some of these churches where thousands of people attend every week. But is it the truth?

   Why are we here, and what is God's main concern for our lives? Are we here to merely pursue happiness? To increase our wealth? To find ourselves in a place where we skip through fields of lilies with smiles on our faces, gleefully dancing toward some beautiful future we have the right to enjoy?

   The answer to these questions can only be found by answering another question first. Who is God?

   I have news for you. God is not your buddy. He's not your pal. He is the most high, most powerful, almighty God. He is the one who literally spoke all of creation into existence. If any of us were to find ourselves face to face with him, our only response would be to fall on our faces with fear and trembling, in awe of his magnificent glory, strength and power, suddenly being made painfully aware of how flawed and unworthy we are to even be in his presence.

   I was shown this staggering truth just recently. I have a confession to make. For the past 3 years or so, I had lost my respect for God. This wasn't an intentional act on my part, nor was it something I was even thinking about. It just happened gradually without my even being aware of it.

   At one point, I truly believed that I was walking very close with Jesus. He was showing me things, teaching me things, blessing me in various ways. But over the course of just a few years, my attitude of gratitude and thankfulness for how he was speaking to me turned into one of arrogance and careless disregard toward him. I began to speak to him as if he was my buddy, throwing up careless prayer after careless prayer. I wasn't asking him what he wanted from me. I was instead asking him to give me what I wanted. In addition to this, the sins in my life were no big deal to me. After all, God knows I'm human, he'd forgive me.

   My attitude was one of believing that my life was all about me. It was all about my plans, my hopes, my desires. I would pray to God from the perspective of believing that he would continue to bless me and protect me no matter what I said or did.

   His response was to literally strip me down to nothing. To meet me face to face and show me how arrogant it was for me to speak to him the way I had been speaking. He showed me that the sins in my life - which I so carelessly disregarded as being nothing - were continual, habitual, intentional acts of disobedience that he was not merely overlooking because I was human. He showed me very clearly and painfully that HE was God, not me. He wasn't here to act according to my plans. I was here to act according to his. If I truly wanted to experience a life that was blessed by him, then my life could not possibly be my life. It would be HIS life to do with whatever he pleased, and I could either humbly, graciously and thankfully accept that, or I could keep on fighting against it until he absolutely crushed me.

   Does God love those who love him? Absolutely. Does he want to draw us near to him, walk with us, teach us, guide us and direct us, give us an abundant life filled with joy? There's no doubt. But he is still the most high, holy God. He will not be disrespected. He will not be disregarded. He will lead us exactly where HE wants us to go. His overall plan for our lives is to mold us and shape us into the image of Christ, and to then send us out into the world as his ambassadors so that others might see Christ in us and be drawn to him in the process. Funny thing about being "molded and shaped." It can be very painful. Sometimes - to bring us to a place where we can truly experience this abundant, joyful life he has for us - he has to first strip away everything we view as being more important than him. That rarely makes us happy when it's happening.

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