God, I promise...

When I was in high school I wasn't on good speaking terms with God...until I needed something from Him. I remember being in math class, getting ready for a test over stuff I didn't understand, praying to God "if you give me the answers I promise I'll study harder next time." I'd fail the test and that would just give another reason why I couldn't trust God. I'd try again, "God if you make that boy like me, I promise I'll be a good girlfriend." He wouldn't like me and I've have another reason pointing out that God must not want me to be happy.

Some of us go to church because we feel we have to, some of us follow God because we feel we owe it to Him. We make deals with God and it appears He held up his part, got us out of some jam, so we sit our happy butts in church and sing songs that have no real meaning. We walk around with our Christian faces on, only we feel indebted to God and wonder when He'll decide our good deeds just aren't good enough any more.

I wanted God to help me, only I hadn't done my part. I wanted God to fix something only it wasn't right for me at all. My focus was on me, what I want, what I lacked, what I needed to "get through the moment"; never was my focus on God, following Him, loving Him, seeking what He wants for me. I only talked to God when I needed something.

God doesn't deal. God isn't a quick fix. God isn't your safety net, your get out of jail free card, your do this and I'll do that. Shame on us for ever thinking like that...yet, here I was just the other day, having sought God for over seven years with all that I am, doing that very thing that I know better; I was thinking "a equals b." I'm in pain so I must of made God mad. Sigh, when will my brain connect with my heart?

When you deal with God, the deal eventually runs out. When you come to church because you owe it to him you eventually stop coming. When you bargain with God it lasts as long as the urgency is there, then the old you comes back out to play.

My sweet friends, join in me saying no more. No more thinking a equals b. No more thinking "whew God got me out of that, ok I better be a better person". No more going to church out of guilt. Be a Christian because you have a Creator that says I love you more than the birds in the air, I need you more than the stars in the sky, I know you better than you know yourself. Love God, follow God, seek God because without Him you are lost. If a truly equals b then...Jesus died for you and there's nothing you can do to increase it or lose it. That's Truth you can promise to accept.