I’m done doing things FOR God
As I was enduring yet another LONG African bus ride filled with all the fun of cramped seats, no air, people’s luggage hitting you, etc, I came across a huge break through in my personal walk with God. You see, I grew up Catholic and in this religion, like most religions, you must continually DO something FOR God. Most say this is done so you can become closer to Him, but when I examine scripture I don’t see anything about this. I see countless times of God telling us He needs nothing FROM us. So why I continually fall in this trap repeatedly in my faith is beyond me.
Start with Genesis when God was “WITH” His creation, then throughout the old testament you see guys like Moses, David, Jonathan, Jeremiah where God continually says I am “WITH” you. Then you have Jesus, also called “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us”. So, over and over again you see this repeated word in the Bible- God always wanting to be WITH His creation, His son’s and daughters. This is shown again in Luke 15 where Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son. The younger son basically says he hates his Dad, asks for his inheritance and then goes and squanders it on wild living. Yet, look at the response from the older son, where he says ” Dad I have always obeyed and served you well and yet you have not even given me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends” His fathers response ” You have always been WITH me, don’t you see all that I have is yours, what’s important now is that my 2 sons are WITH me” (paraphrased).
God is not interested so much in what you do FOR Him, He doesn’t need anything from us. Like the big brother in the story we can serve God well every day all day but if we don’t do it WITH Him, it’s all for nothing. We can even be like the younger brother at times in our life where we act foolishly against God. Yet, God isn’t so much interested in what you do FOR or AGAINST Him, it would seem He’s more interested that He is WITH you and you are WITH Him in whatever you do. Think about it, what’s more “Holy,” something as mundane as washing the dishes WITH God, or preaching a sermon or feeding the homeless without Him? This is hard for our culture to grasp because we are so visually fixated on what you can show and in fact the most intimate part the core of Christianity isn’t about what you can show at all. It’s about the hidden intimate relationship you have with God when no one is around.
If God is with us in the everyday activities, then those activities now become Holy activities because God’s presence is there. Look at when Moses came across God’s presence in the burning bush, and God says to Moses “Take off your sandals for you are walking on Holy ground”. There was nothing special about that ground before God rested His presence on the bush, but it then became Holy because God was dwelling there. This gives me so much freedom, especially being on a mission trip where I could easily get caught up in the “look at me, isn’t my life so Holy attitude,” yet it would seem God has a completely different perspective on things. This would give light to the verse in Matthew where Jesus says the day will come where people will say, “master look we prophesied in your name, we fed and clothed the homeless in your name, we did all these things in your name, and Jesus will look at them and say ‘I never knew you’.”(paraphrased)
We can do all we want visually for God, and don’t get me wrong some of those things are great and pleasing to Him and we should continue to love and serve Him the way we feel called to. However, the most important things to ask…. is God WITH you in those activities no matter what they are? Because when He is with us, everything we do becomes a Holy activity. We can’t do anything FOR God that He can’t do for Himself, He doesn’t even require it of us. What He wants is just US, who we are, our heart, and to be invited to be with us in our day no matter what the activity.
