Let's Make a Deal!
Today, I felt lead by God to share about making "Deals" with God. I remember as a child, I used to try to make deals with God. "God if you do this for me, I'll do ____for you". "If you get me out of this...I will do that." Never worked out for me...go figure. Sometimes we play the "when, then" game as well. "When we ______, then we will ________." We do not call the shots. We have no control. Today I heard an alarming statement from a person dear to me to the God that is everything to me. A "when" "then" statement. I began to feel a giant sadness in my heart for this person. They were making a "deal" with God.
Now, what this person does not understand is that in order to make a "deal" each party must have something that the other person needs. According to Acts 17:23-25: The Bible tells us
23 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
I think that in our humanness, we forget who God is! He is the very One who created everything with His very breath!!! He spoke, and it came into existence. The Universe, the Earth and everything in it and on it. He does not need anything from us. He is perfect, there is nothing that we can give Him that He needs or wants. If he does have something for us to do for Him, the end result is to give him the Glory and Honor and Praise.
He does not need anything from us, but we need Him. Sometimes when we feel like we are being "picked on" and we blame God for our circumstances we forget that we are blaming the wrong person. We should be praying against the evil one. Our God loves us, He loved us so much that He gave His only SON to take the punishment for our sins. (Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God", Romans 6:23"For the wages of sin is death, but the Gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus)
Our God does not want us to suffer or hurt, but we are a stubborn and sinful people. We want it our way. God, our creator wants it His way. Sometimes the only way that we will listen is for God to allow us to have our way and be taken so far down the only way that we have to look is up. I remember a time when I was there, my hubby and I had a disagreement, the kids where being challenging and I was at my breaking point. I got in my car, drove up the Columbia River Gorge and finally stopped at Multnomah Falls parking area. I was screaming and crying to myself about the situation and I said, "I don't even have any friends to talk to, to share these things with who will understand!" As I cried, I looked over at the glory of the falls and followed them from the bottom to the top and just kept looking up. I said, "Oh yeah, I have you. I forgot you are my best friend, Jesus. Please forgive me for forgetting. I am having a really bad time. Please help me." I continued to pray for the entire situation giving it ALL up to Him.
We have no control over the past, we can only change today and make strides toward our future...our prize. We need to turn our past over to God and KNOW that if we are reminded of the bad times, that does not come from God, because the evil one knows how to trip us up. He is a deceiver, seeking to steal and destroy us. We need not make "DEALS" with God but to turn our cares to Him and He will just love us and care for us. We need to trust Him, alone.
