I often wonder what the world would look like if we could go back to the ‘Bible times’ where signs and wonders were expected from Christians. Wouldn’t it be great to have more healing than sicknesses? I even reason that it would give God more glory if more of that would happen than not. Don’t miracles excite God? But before I’m done with such thoughts, I begin to think of the pressure of measuring up. What happens if the people you pray for don’t get healed? What if God doesn’t answer that prayer? What happens if they don’t believe the prophetic word you tell them? For a minute, think about what it must have been like to be a prophet in the Bible – God would send those men to say daring things, trusting that He would back up His word. Imagine having to face a king to tell him that God wants His people back! In fact, God prepared Moses enough, telling him that the Israelites would take plunder from Egypt – as in, take articles of silver, gold, and even clothing as their reward. It must have been a pretty intense conversation for Moses to say this to God:
Exodus 4.1 Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, “The LORD has not appeared to you.”’
Sometimes, the hardest part about being a Christian is trying to convince others of the power, love, and might of the God we serve – and right there is where God started the talk with me. We get so stuck up in trying to prove that our God is powerful enough to be worshiped that we miss the whole point of it. We have over-indulged in such philosophies so much so that it seems like God is a weakling that cannot defend His name. Far be it from the truth! In fact, in Exodus 15:3, the Bible talks of the LORD being a man of war.
God is all-sufficient in Himself and does not need anyone covering any bases for Him – to Him and from Him are all things. All He requires of you is obedience.
If we just show up and do the thing that God asks of us, God will back up His word with everything that He is.
It reminded me of a conversation I had some time last year with a mentor about how quick we are to share the ‘shame’ that should otherwise belong to God. At first, I struggled to understand what he meant by God having any shame until he explained further. He told me about how easy it is for believers to give God the glory when He comes through on something, yet we feel burdened or obliged to carry the ‘shame’ if God does not come through in the way that we hoped He would. See, when Lazarus had been sick to the point of death, Jesus knew about it, but so did everyone else around Him. They had wondered why a miracle-working savior would allow His friend to die. Throughout the four days, it seemed like Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, needed to carry the shame of Jesus not coming through for His friend. But this whole time, Jesus knew that there was no shame in the outcome of the situation – the sickness was not meant to claim Lazarus’ life. Jesus was still on top of the matter. If anything, the resurrection brought God more glory than would have the healing. It is because God’s way always attracts more glory than our way.
My mentor reminded me that as long as we are counting on God, we should stake it all on His reputation, not ours – it is all for His glory after all, right? That means that your work should only be to do the thing that God told you to do, not prove a point. If the instruction is to pray for someone, just pray. If it is to share the gospel, then do that. If it is to encourage, encourage. If it is to love, then love. But that’s as far as your responsibility goes.
The truth is, for as long as you keep trusting God for different things in life, moments of doubt will come up. The devil, who is our accuser, will continuously show you how much shame you have to carry when God does not come through in the way you expected Him to.
What you fail to see is that God has a clean track record of coming through for His people, and ultimately, the glory always goes back to Him – it may just look a little different from what you had in mind.
So, resist the urge to help God carry some of the weight. It is not up to you to convince people that God is good – He is good enough all by Himself. Yours is to dwell in the secret place with Him, so you can be an ambassador of the kingdom. Yours is to lead a life that depicts the kind of God He is – that by just observing your life, one would be interested in the kind of God you serve. Yours is to reign with Christ and take dominion on this earth – that your words and actions release God’s power and spirit on creation. The rest of the weight belongs to God – whether glory or ‘shame’, God can and will defend His own name. So, relax, my friend! Leave the weight on God. Let Him defend His throne – He’s got all the heavy lifting taken care of. Yours is to gain more territory for His kingdom. Pray. Preach. Worship. Dwell. Love. Obey!
