Making Deals With God

I have a ten year old son. He is just starting to exhibit those tween tendencies. You know the ones: procrastination, the eye rolls, attitude starting to show, incessant deal making. Sometimes I think he forgets we were youth pastors for many years and know many of the tricks. The thing is if we don't address these issues now, they will grow and worsen as he grows and will effect his relationships with other people and with God. Let's look at the one of these that can effect us very deeply and effect our relationship with Jesus.

Does a conversation like this sound familiar?

     Parent: It's time to turn off the game console and go outside and do something active.
     Child: Silence.....
     Parent: It's time to turn it off, you've been playing for 2 straight hours.
     Child: Let me finish this one level.
     Parent: How much longer? 3 minutes?
     Child: Yeah, probably.

30 minutes later you have watched the clock and the child is still a lump on the couch playing the video game.

You know the story. Later on the parent remembers, heads back into the family room, stands in front of the TV, child gets disgusted and rolls their eyes while giving attitude because they didn't get their way. Then they start trying to make more deals with you to either play more, or to even be able to play again later that day. The child often treats the parent as if they are there to solely provide for the child and bow to their every wish and whim. We as parents know what's best for our children, but the children will often refuse to accept that their parents know best and will say, "That's not fair! You just don't get it!" and storm off. That is until the next time they need or, more likely, want something they can't provide or do themselves.

You might want to stop and sit down if you're reading this on your mobile device while walking around. Guess what; we do the very same thing with God. We are moving along on our happy way deciding this and that, when there is something we want or think we need. It's out of reach and as good Christians we pray and ask God to deliver. We keep praying and asking God to give us what we want, to do the thing we think needs to be done, fully expecting Him to ignore His sovereignty, His infinite wisdom, His omniscience, and just grant us our wish. Then, when He doesn't come through in exactly the way we wanted we exclaim, "That's not fair! You just don't get it! God where are you in this? Don't you see?" and storm off.

How many times have we reduced God down to a genie in a bottle here to grant us our wishes? How many times have we gotten mad at God because His answer to our demand was either no or just silence. "How can he do that? Doesn't he understand the situation? Obviously not.", is what we think. Then the deal making starts. "God, if you'll do this one thing, I'll devote my life to service for you." I know it's a bit over the top, but not too far off. We get blinded by our own selfish desires and wants and can't imagine why God doesn't see it our way and take our orders.

Here's the thing. God doesn't owe us anything. We forget that we haven't earned grace, He has freely given it. We haven't earned forgiveness, He has freely given it. We haven't paid the price for our sin, His son, Jesus, paid that debt on a Roman cross. There is nothing we can do to earn God's grace or forgiveness. There is no deal we can make that will change the mind of God. We cannot earn anything, and deserve nothing. If it hadn't been for Jesus Christ, we would all suffer an eternity in Hell. There is no deal making we could ever make that can change that.

Once we start believing we can deal with God, we reduce His sacrifice to an individual action that has no power. In our mind God becomes a supporting character in the story of our life, instead of the author. We elevate ourselves to such importance, in our mind, that no one, not even God, can measure up. That becomes a very lonely place. A place without even God.

Jesus teaches us that it is the heart attitude that really matters. It's not the actions we take, but the reasons we take those actions. Yes, the actions are important and we need to serve and minister in the name of Jesus Christ. These actions do not earn us any special favors from God, though. These actions are pointless if our heart attitude is not simply doing this in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus. We cannot earn anything, nor do we deserve anything, even for our good works.

Friends, let me encourage you. We all find our self in this place at one time or another. One of the most beautiful things about God is His unending supply of grace and forgiveness, as long as we approach Him humbly and willing to submit to Him and His authority, plans and purposes. One day it will make sense.

Proverbs 3:5-7 sums this up. Trust God. He will make your path straight when you rely on Him completely. Don't second guess Him, trust Him and allow Him to direct you. Believe in His wisdom and that He has your best interests in mind.