Understanding God and his ways is one tough cookie. I’m saying this from many personal instances where I was left flabbergasted and confused about why He did this or that for me. The constant theme that I always remembered hearing in church or from fellow believers is that, “God’s ways are not our ways,” which is a reference to Isaiah 55:8 which says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” In simple terms, God thinks and acts differently than what we, as humans, think and do.
If you live on this green surface we call Earth, you might think like I do or have seen others who think similarly. I’m speaking particularly about the idea that you have to do something in order to receive something from anyone in this life – except maybe from a loving mother or a grandparent or two.
Basically, there is a notion that one has to perform in order to receive a prize or reward. My father always told me there is nothing in this world that is free, not even the Costco food samples; you have to have a paying membership to even get that. But God? He goes against all of this; He defies our human logic with his unfailing love.
In the world we live in, we have to perform and perform well in order to receive anything – a paycheck, a partner, notoriety and fame, etc. But God, He loves us just because. He’s not like Santa Claus who only rewards the kids who’ve been nice all year, but God rewards all of us alike; He shows no favoritism. He does this to illuminate to us that He is a fair and just God. That doesn’t mean we have free rein to do any and everything we want and God will continue to bless us like a genie – it doesn’t work that way. An example of God not showing favoritism is when I was at the peak of my journey of freely sinning or “doing me” with not a care in the world, and definitely not thinking about how my actions made God feel. God literally blessed me with a very profitable scholarship that I didn’t even think I deserved because it literally fell in my lap when I wasn’t acting according to God’s will in my life. But as the age-old saying goes, “God’s unfailing love covers up a ‘multitude’ of sins.”
I’m not saying I got that blessing and countless others because I deserve it, no, God blessed me and you with these things because He loves us. God loves us so much and holds us to such high regard that John 3:16 (KJV) states, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
I love the woman who birthed me, dearly, but I still find it hard to give her some of my food when she asks. So this should go to show how God’s love is on a different level that we can’t even fathom. I know for me, my struggle has always been that I don’t do enough for God. I falter on this journey in many instances. Sometimes, I even want to give up, honestly, but I remember all the countless times that God has provided for me, done great things in my life that only He could take credit for, and kept me alive when I didn’t even want to be. The greatest mistake made between all of this was thinking I deserved or didn’t deserve all of those things based on my performance. That’s what this world makes us believe – that you only get things if you’re perfect 1000% all of the time. I’m barely right half of the time. But like I mentioned earlier, God isn’t us, we aren’t God, His ways aren’t ours, and visa-versa.
Ultimately, God just wants us to focus on Him and His presence and not to base our belief on if we’re Christian or being Christian enough, solely on our performance. Because if we all did that, our numbers would dwindle quite dramatically because we could never do enough to even get close to what God did for us on the cross. Our responsibility is to be receptive to his unconditional love, to trust and thank Him in all circumstances. Godspeed.
