I guess I will start with the question that has been at the forefront of my mind for a long while now; is God involved with our lives on an individual basis? - is he interested in the decisions, choices, and questions that we face as individuals or is he interested more on a sort of community level? Now this might seem an odd question, as I know that the Bible is seen to be quite clear about the fact that he does have a personal relationship with each of us, but let me clarify a bit further what I mean using Abraham as an example.
God established His coveneant with Abraham. He promised Abraham that he would have many descendents - and (eventually!) provided him with a son. God tested him in his devotion to God - and Abraham passed, so this son became the one through whom the covenant would be fulfilled. The promises that God gave to Abraham would have meant a lot to Abraham. In those days the promise of many descedents would have been such a blessing to Abraham, but they didn't just serve as a purpose for making Abraham happy. It wasn't just about blessing Abraham. These promises served a greater purpose - that of the establishment of the nation Israel - The Children of God. I want to be clear; I don't think that this in any way diminishes what God did for Abraham, or makes God any less good or loving. If anything it makes Him more so. My point is simply that God's dealings with Abraham were not simply for the sake of Abraham.
I am still at the very early stages of these thoughts, and I have in no way thought this through properly yet, hence why I am using this blog! But here goes - this is where all these thoughts are leading:
How does God deal with, or relate to me? I am but one individual in a massive history of Christians. There is nothing particularly that sets me apart or makes me different to any of the others, and yet, apparently, God is meant to "be my Father", my "friend". And apparently, He "loves me". (I feel at this point that I have to say sorry to God for even questioning this. The truth is that I know really deep down that He is and does, I just don't really get it. I know He understands my search for understanding). I think my problem with all this is the emphasis on me. If God is my Father - that puts the emphasis on me in the sense that a Father is there to look after their child and to nurture them. What about putting the emphasis differently. I am God's son, and therefore my role is to make my Father proud, to be obedient and to do all that I can for Him. When I pray or speak to God, is it right that I should bring to Him all my concerns, hopes and desires, asking Him to bless me, when the focus is so heavily on me. Will God answer those prayers? Does He even care about them - except where they relate to the growth of His Kingdom and my role in that. I think that is the crux of it for me. Does God care about the things of "life", that I really care about unless these are the very things that themselves have an impact on His Kingdom. In other words, should I be asking Him for the things that I really really want, even though they are worldly desires which show that I am still attatched to (and to some extent - love), this world, and probably have no bearing on His Kingdom.
Does God care about those things? Does He look at me and see what I desire and long to make me happy as a Father does His child? Does He care, and yet ask me to give them up because they are of this world, not His Kingdom? Does it pain Him to see me struggle through that giving up process? Or does He look at those desires, see they are not relevant, and not even bother to get invloved because they are not to do with Him anyway?
I guess I am seeing Him right now as a bit of a distant God who requires that we fulfil certain criteria, who only gets involved in our lives where it might have a real impact on His Kingdom, and who gets angry when we sin and don't meet the requirements He expects of us.
On top of this, I get really concerned when I hear people say, "I wouldn't have got through this time without God". What does that actually mean? What does God do to help people through this time, and why are we so convinced that without God we wouldn't have made it? Non-Christians seem to manage ok. What truly is the difference between me and a non-Christian aside from the fact of Salvation and all the joy that brings? What is the difference in day to day life except that my focus ought to be on building the Kingdom? Are there any other things that are different? When we say God answered my prayer, and a non-Christian would tell us that it was a coincidence, are we convinced that it was actually God? Why? How can we be sure?
Deep down I know that God is a God that gets involved in the lives of us as individuals. He is involved in my life. And yet, I just don't really get how. I don'y really get why He seems to answer some prayers and not others, whether I am allowed to ask Him for the things I want, or whether I should instead be striving to not care about them any more. I know that I can have an impact on His Kingdom and He does have a plan for my life. I know that - but I know it in my heart, not my head. (I know the other way round to usual.) I tend to rely on my head to make my decisions, not necessarily my heart, and so not understanding these things makes it hard for me to believe that I can actually do anything for God.
God is closer than you think. Is He? I really hope that studying this book at the corps for a while will help with that. I need to know that He is in my head as well as my heart.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Hi Kirsty.
Not had time to read all your blog yet - there is a lot of it to look at to start with! Anyway - I have read a bit of your stuff about - individual or nation referring to Abraham. I think you must remember the OT v NT stuff in relation to this. God's plan was to reconcile all people to him. He started this by working through a nation, and for whatever reason chose Abram to be the 'father' of that nation. This nation was to show the world what a blessing it was to be in the family of God. So Israel was intended to be the pattern. We believe it was always his plan to work through Jesus and bring every 'individual' into that relationship. Jesus the perfect example of the perfect relationship with the Father. I have to admit that if it was always his plan to send Jesus, why he started with OT through a nation, which clearly didn't work to the ultimate extent, I can't quite fathom. Nevertheless, clearly the whole OT thing has immense lessons for his 'chosen people' of NT days.
So, what I am trying to say is that the covenant with Abram was intended as personal to him and through him to a nation. However, through Jesus, His covenant is made complete with everyone, if they choose to make that pact with him. Jesus the ultimate blood covenant. Not just a slash of the wrists (or animal) blood, but the complete blood offering of his son's life, is the signal of the covenant for all time.
As God changed Abram's name as a sign of the covenant - to Abraham, so in the completing of the covenant with you and me, so he gives us a new name (Rev 3:12) (SA Song book 59 v.2). Our family name is now joined with him though Jesus - we are Christian, brothers (and sisters) of Christ.
So at one time, the chosen nation was Israel, chosen to show the world the family and reconciled people of God, demonstrating what living in God's way could be like. (Hmmm - not the best example always, especially now when we see history repeating itself again in the middle east!) But then Jesus came and demonstrated it perfectly, leaving his people, the church, to carry on that demonstration. (1 Peter 2:9).
So, in one sense, God shows himself to the world and has a relationship with the community of his people the church universal, but in other ways, it is through his people as individuals who have a responsibility to endeavour to grow more like we were intended to be (fruit of the Spirit), so that we can truly demonstrate God and his love and reconciliation to the world at large. Phew long answer!!! (If it is an answer - hope it explains a little anyway!)
Love you
Dad
Wow! Big answer. I do get that, I know that there are massive differences in OT and NT in terms of the way that we can relate to God under the new covenant. It is more a question of whether God chooses to be involved in our lives for our benefit, just because, or whether he only gets involved when there is a greater purpose at work, i.e. answering our prayers or blessing us in some way happens only when it can also serve to further His kingdom in some way. Obviously, I would like to think its the first, but I honestly don't know!
Hey K,
It's cool to read all your thoughts. I have 2 points.
The first refers to your point about worldly desires still being an element of life and whether God would be concerned with them: in some ways it is inevitable that we will seek worldly things to an extent in that we are always being tempted by that around us, being fallen humans. But the important thing is that God knows our NEEDS and even if there are things that are not perhaps vital (this includes things day-to-day material things and spans to bigger things like relationships), he promises to provide what it is that we need and therefore it is a challenge to be content with with what we have, but still praying for the desires of our heart and in God's time, he provides and in His way, decides what it superfluous to those needs and is something we have to work with (is that spelt right Rachel?!).
I also believe that God is, and wants to be, involved in all parts of our INDIVIDUAL lives because each of us contribute to the kingdom of God in our own ways...this reminds me of a song...Body of Christ!!
Anyway, i think i might have waffled off the point and sorry if it makes no sense- i find it hard to write down my thoughts which is why my blog failed!!
Hey! I'm so glad you decided to let us know about your blog. It is really interesting and I'm sure will be helpful to those who read it.
By the way, I warn you now my comments always end up being really long (which you may know if you've looked at Rachel's, and the entries in my own blog!).
Wow - you've raised some brilliant questions, and i think it's great that you're pondering these things, and don't worry about asking these sorts of questions - I think it's a great sign of godliness and truely wanting to live for Christ.
Have you ever read any of John Piper's stuff? I always go on about him, and I have recommended him on Rachel's blog, but he has inspired me more than any other Christian writer and has given me over the years a fresh understanding of our purpose in relation to God, and has excited me so much. That's not to say his ideas are fresh - he himself has been inspred by many ancient Christian writers who have ultimately got their concepts from God Himself through the Bible. But reading his stuff has helped me to understand such wonderful things that I never grasped before. He asks the question, "Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?" and, "Since only God can satisfy the soul forever, his freeing us to make much of him is the deepest act of love possible - especially when it happens at the cost of his son. To feel loved in this way, one must savour God as the most excellent of all beings...To be given the privilege and the power to know and admire and make much of this Person, with ever increasing joy for endless ages, is to know what it means to be loved". Much of what he writes has been shaped by part of the old Westminster catechism which says , "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever", but he changes this to, "The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying him forever".
What these sorts of concepts do is turn the focus away from us and onto God. I think you are right Kirsty to some extent when you say it doesn't seem quite right for all the focus to be on ME, because ultimately God is concerned for His own glory. Reading this stuff has helped me to turn the focus from me and start focussing on God's glory. But that is not a great burden to us because WE GLORIFY GOD MOST WHEN WE ARE MOST SATISFIED IN HIM. I think it is true that the focus is not on me, but God. However, we are only going to be able to glorify God if we are delighting in Him and who He is and what He has done for us. We only praise something that we delight in, that we enjoy, and for us, that delight comes from that personal relationship that we have with God. Without that I don't see how we can ever truely delight in him. So therefore, i think God is extremely interested in us on an individual basis, because it is through the individual relationship that he has with us, and ultimately our INDIVIDUAL salvation (not forgetting that he is saving a PEOPLE for himself)that will cause us to delight in him and in turn be completely satisfied in him and in turn GLORIFY him. So the focus is on God and his glory, but it brings us individual satisfaction and joy. If God did not take a personal interest in us and deeply love us, we would not really ever be truely satisfied in him, and he would forfeit his glory.
So as he relates to us as MY FATHER, MY FRIEND - very personal relationships - we respond in praise to him and he gets the glory. Does that make sense? And also, when we bring our needs to him, however small and insignificant they may seem, we are actually focussing on him because we are showing our dependance on him, our total reliance on him and our acknowledgment that he is God and in control of MY circumstances. So once again he gets the glory, and we get deep satisfaction in him.
A lot of the Psalms show this sort of relationship, which is very personal: "Delight yourself in the Lord; and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).
But the key has to be in where our desires lie. I firmly believe God is interested in us on an individual basis and has a plan for each of us - but we must never forget that we are Kingdom people. We are in the world, not of it. So with things that matter to us, but ultimately have nothing to do with the kingdom, perhaps we need to ask if they are worldly. I agree with Mel that God knows what we need - we may think that some of our desires have nothing to do with the kingdom, when infact they have a very important part in God's plan. Like, the desire for a certain job, or the desire to get married, or the desire to go on a certain holiday - these things may seem like they are only things that matter on this earth, but they could all be part of God's bigger plan. And also, even if they are not part of the bigger "Kingdom picture", the Bible says God delights to give good gifts to his children, so I believe he delights in blessing us, and sometimes he blesses us for no other reason than to bless us! But we have to always remember to give God the glory, which will mean the focus goes back to him!
But we should also question if our desires are sinful. And do they take the glory from God on to something else?
Is God pained when we struggle to give something up? If it is worldly, or rather, ungodly, I he would want us to give it up. I think he would be more pained if we continued going after that thing and missed out on being satisfied completely in him. But always remember and be assured he is a God who identifies with our struggles, and he loves us and is gracious to us and sends his spirit to strengthen us. He will be merciful to us if we seek to obey him.
Just one more thing - I know this is very long - but you shouldn't have raised so many intersting points!!!
In light of the above - that true satisfaction comes when we are delighting in GOd, and giving him the glory - I think it is perfectly valid when a Christian says they would not have got through something without God. IT's true that many non-Christians seem to do ok and that they get through their problems as Christians do. But are they living life to the full? Are they truely satisfied? DO they have full assurance that God is in control? Do they have the joy and peace that only comes from knowing God? They can't have any of this. They may be happy, they may be ok, but they are missing out. Once we know waht it is to be in relationship with God, I don't think we could ever get through things without him. Once you have 'tasted and seen that the Lord is good', how could you ever be without that? A non-christian has never experienced that, so they don't miss out. But we know the strength and the love that God gives through those struggles, so if we didn't have that anymore, I don't know how we'd ever get through.
You also mentioned about coincidences and stuff, but I'll write about that on one of our other entries if that's ok. I want to comment on the other stuff you've written. You might have to ban me from your blog for my long entries!!! But I love these sort of discussions!
Take care, and keep pondering!! I'm sure God will bless you greatly through it!
Woah - how embarrassing - my comment is VERY loong - sorry!
Jo
Thanks for your comment. It was long, but all very, very intreresting and very helpful. You know, I think one day you should write a book. You make so much sense in explaining things.
I will look into reading some of John Piper's stuff. It certainly sounds good from what you wrote.
The idea that for us to truly give God glory, we would need to be delighting in Him, which in turn will only happen if we are satisfied by Him is a very interesting spin on it. I had never thought of it in that way before. I definitely need to think this through to think about how this may impact the way I live and relate to God.
The thing you said about non-Christians getting by but not being fully satisfied is also a good point.
I guess I just find it hard to know the difference between desires that may be part of God's plan, and those that take the glory away from God. I think though, that as my relationship with God becomes stronger and deeper, I will start to know what is on His heart, and will understand what things are taking the place of His glory.
Thanks again for your very interesting comments. I will never ban you, what you say is too wise!
xxx
Hey! Glad you are not too bothered that it was so long!
John Piper puts the ideas so much better than me and backs it all up with a million billion verses. The one I would recommend for all these concepts is called "Desiring God", but my favourite one just for a wonderful read is called "The Pleasures of God". It is my all time favourite book!
Xxx
Post a Comment