“You ask and do not receive, because you ask in vain, so that you can spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3).
From God’s perspective, our expectations of Him may often seem too careless. We have no adequate knowledge of His grace or His eternal purposes, and so we lay claim to them so carelessly that we come close to being trivial and insulting. God’s goodness is truly a treasure trove of wonderful riches. But it was not founded to give money to remove every little inconvenience from our lives in this world. We have to be careful what we ask for and why we ask. God’s grace should not be taken lightly.
Imagine that a loving, intelligent parent has made difficult sacrifices to send their son or daughter to college. Then the parents get frustrated saying “send more money!” The message when student lifestyle indicates that there is little appreciation for what it took to make those funds available. To put it more deeply, God may be tempted to casually say “Help me with this problem!” It must seem troublesome to receive. The message from us, when it is clear that we are out of touch with the reality of what we had to sacrifice to make our prayers possible.
The more serious aspect of the problem is that we view the cross as nothing more than our ticket to a trouble-free life. We not only underestimate the cost of God’s grace, we also fail to appreciate its purpose. The Son of God did not go to the cross merely to purchase our convenience, or even our happiness. No, what happened on that dark day was that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:19). It would not be an exaggeration to say that we should also look at the blessing of forgiveness from this perspective. We should not apologize just because it benefits us personally. We must seek it because our reconciliation is a part of God’s eternal purpose in Christ, the purpose of which is to accomplish “the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:12-14). The Kingdom of Heaven is not about us. It’s about God. We want to be saved not for ourselves, but for God.
“God does not give packages of spiritual victories, special delivered to the person who requests it. Your sin cost Him the death of His Son; He is not a giver of spiritual bandages. He uses your struggles to give you a thorough housecleaning, reorganizing your priorities, and making you dependent on His grace. There are no cheap, easy miracles. You need spiritual freedom, not just for yourself, but for God’s sake” (Irwin W. Lutzer).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
