Never let me go
I’m learning more and more how picky God is.
Scratch that; I’m accepting more and more how picky God is.
I should be clearer about what I mean by picky.
Growing up in Sunday School, all the bible stories of Jesus healing lepers, casting out demons, rebuking disciples for shoo’ing off cute, innocent little kids, feeding the 5,000, and eventually dying on the cross for selfish hot-headed folks like you and I. All of it left me with a warm fuzzy feeling in my belly that said, “God will NEVER abandon me; there was absolutely nothing I’d do to make him turn his back on me”
I came to imagine God as sort of like Santa Claus, an adorable, fuzzy, friendly grandpa who let you sit on his lap and pick out toys and gummy bears with a wide grin on his face that never faded.
If you grew up getting forced to sit through Sunday School like I did, I bet you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about.…
And boyyyyyy that left me feeling like I was on top of the world because I could never fall out of God’s good graces. Basically, God would never ghost me.
You know what? I’ll come right out and say it. It also made me feel like even if I were to ever do underhanded, shady things, God would always look right the other way. Because, I mean, have you ever met an angry Santa Claus?
And then all those hymns about Jesus being the sacrificial lamb. I could strut around fearless, knowing that I had an unbreakable pact with my maker cause he was ready to give me a free makeover anytime I got bloodied with some sin, bad decisions, bad boyfriends, cheating on an exam, lying to my parents, etc. God was ever ready, earnest, and willing to get me back to sparking white in a matter of seconds. No questions asked.
There’s absolutely a lot of truth to thinking this way.
God’s love is overwhelming, constant, unchanging, passionate, reckless, and unconditional. John 3:16 makes that absolutely clear. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
He was ready to give up everything to rescue me; his death on the Cross made that clear. So you and I can rest assured that nothing in the universe can ever change God’s love for us.
Viewed this way, there’s a freedom that comes with knowing you have a Father whose love isn’t flawed, manipulative, calculating like human love. He won’t stand you up at dinner, promise to call and never do, or threaten to leave us on our bad days.
But you know? Freeing as this awareness of God’s unconditional love is, it’s just as easy to take advantage of.
And surprise, surprise, that’s exactly what I did.
It’s like I had spotted God’s blind spot, his weakness, and I exploited it to the max.
Here’s what I mean.
Since God, my personal Santa, would always look the other way, it never really mattered how I lived it up during the week as long as I showed up at Church on Sundays in a perfectly tailored, well-ironed outfit.
Despite messing around with pornography and masturbation in my college dorm room on Friday nights, I never missed Sundays.
Despite harboring anger, resentment, and unforgiveness toward friends and family, I never missed Sundays.
Despite gossiping and playing one friend against another, I never missed Sundays.
I became locked into the never-ending cycle, racing to the altar on Sundays to beg forgiveness, but when the same temptations came knocking, I never really changed my choices.
I never really said it out loud, but my life choices said it loud enough. I could sin it up all I wanted, as long as I showed up on Sunday to get a good dose of atonement by singing in the choir, volunteering to teach the adorable kids at Sunday School, or crying my heart out during praise and worship.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
I wore Christ merely as a costume but lacked all of His character.
Have you made God your personal sugar daddy? Your puppet Santa Claus?
Know this. God’s love is unconditional, but a relationship with him is conditional.
God ain’t picky about who he loves, but he is picky about who he has a relationship with.
Psalm 147:10 doesn’t mince words.
“His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior. The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love”
You may be a fire-breathing, mountain-moving, earth-quaking prayer warrior or chorister whose vocal cords will make Beyonce tremble in her boots, but does that really mean you fear God?
Do you fear God in the kinds of Netflix movies you watch?
Do you fear God when your chatty bestie turns the conversation into flat-out gossip?
Do you fear God in the way you speak to your kids?
Do you fear God in how you treat that in-law who gets on your last nerve?
At this point, I may have just ticked you off enough, and you’re itching to yell, “Don’t persuade people to worship God out of fear!!!!!!!!!!!”
You’re right. God doesn’t want us quivering under the covers, terrified of him. 1 John 4:18 confirms this “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
Fear focused on avoiding punishment isn’t healthy because if there weren’t punishment, nothing would hold you back from doing what the heck you wanna do. But there’s much wisdom in honoring God’s will and way, as Proverbs 9:10–12 says: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
This is the respectful, deferential type of fear towards an authority you’ve entrusted your life. When you stop at a red traffic light, it isn’t because you fear it can kill you if you defy it but because you fully trust the installed traffic monitoring system knows its job and is working hard to prevent accidents at major intersections.
Righteous fear of God’s authority should be a force to motivate us to do good, but more importantly, it’s a condition for having a relationship with him.
God loves us unconditionally—that’s no question—but He is picky about who He is in a relationship with.
So fear him so you can get picked.
Here’s a sermon that helped with a healthier perspective on fearing God: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jth8GhcUz7c
I hope it helps you, too!
As always, if you’d like guidance on how to step up your Bible Study game, let’s connect here.
