Friday, January 28, 2011

Trusting God vs. using Him as a Scapegoat

As a Christian, you know it's important to trust in God. As a human, you know it can be hard to do sometimes.

We've all heard, "Just give it up and let God handle it." This is true, to a point.

What do I mean?

Let's say one day you decide, "You know what, I'm sick and tired of grocery shopping." To handle this you say, "I'm just going to give it to God. If He wants me to eat, He will put food in my hands so that I never have to grocery shop again. If I die of starvation, well then, that was just God's will."

OK, good luck with that.

You see God CAN do that, He can put food into your hands. He can perform any miracle. That doesn't mean He's going to or that He wants you to give up or be lazy. It doesn't mean you can use Him as a scapegoat to keep you from having to perform difficult tasks, make tough decisions or just do something you don't want to do.

God wants you to put forth some effort. I mean laziness is one of the seven deadly sins. The Bible is full of verses about how important it is to work hard and not be lazy. Just look at Proverbs: "The soul of the lazy man desires and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich." (13:4). Oh, and the book of James speaks on it too. Christians are not saved by works, but they do show their faith by their works (James 2:18, 26).

Another example: Say you decide you just don't want to pay your bills anymore. You've decided you could do a lot of useful things with your money, other than pay bills. Besides, it's just not fun. You decide that if you end up in jail, then it's just God's will.

Again, I say "Good luck with that." I'll be sure to check in on you in a year from now when the IRS is knocking at your door, along with a deputy.

Oh, and by the way, I'm pretty sure God doesn't want you to starve to death or to end up in jail when you are perfectly capable of grocery shopping and working to pay your bills.

Of course these examples are extreme, but I have seen people with a very similar mindset. People that think when there is something going on that is difficult, they should just give up. If that means they don't eat or they go to jail or they lose their home, well then that was just God's will.

Bologna.

God doesn't want you to suffer. He says so.

It is important to trust in God. It is also important to do your best and keep the faith. Don't back away from difficult tasks, don't use God as your excuse to fail. He wants you to succeed. He wants to make you stronger. Sometimes, that means doing things we don't want to do and trusting Him while we do them.

In the end, as long as you trust in Him, keep that faith and do your best, everything will be just fine! I am NOT in anyway saying don't trust God with your difficult tasks. You should trust God with ALL things, but also trust that God can give YOU the ability to handle it.

1 comment:

Monster Mike said...

Thanks, Donna. I've been meeting Christians that seem to be putting everything on God even when they should take action on their own situation. They tend to have a meanness or arrogance about them. I don't know what to say to such people, they know it all. I think I will just keep praying until something happens. Thanks for the confirmation.