Showers of Blessing

I’ve been thinking a lot about the last post I wrote, and in particular, the relationship between blessings and obedience.  It’s always been a difficult concept for me to grasp.  Here's what I've come up with. (As always, feel free to agree or disagree with me!)

On the one hand, I don’t want to ever be accused of changing my behavior just to receive a reward -- I’d like to think I’m a bit more mature than that.  On the other hand, we’re all familiar with the punishment/reward system of behavior, and most of us, have in fact used it heavily at some point in our lives.   ( Anybody else out there use the m&m method of rewards for potty training???)

The sheer reality of it is humans won’t act unless we receive a proper incentive to do so.  That incentive varies from person to person, including:

Fear

Rewards

Self Motivation

Love

How you relate to God is a direct result of what motivates you to obey Him.  If your only view of God is as an authoritative being who will zap you if you don’t follow his rules, then you’re not likely to want to be all that close to him.  That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be fearful of God, for according to Proverbs 9:10, fearing God is the beginning of wisdom.  But it’s a different kind of fear than stark terror, more like the respectful fear you had for your parents as a child.    

Fear and/or the promise of rewards won’t get you very far in building a relationship. And it certainly won’t guarantee obedience 100% of the time.   For all the rewards of Eden, Adam and Eve still succumbed to temptation.  I’m sure they feared God and enjoyed living in Paradise, but that wasn’t enough for them at the time.  So did that mean He scrapped his whole plan when they sinned?

I don’t think God viewed the blessing of living in paradise as the ultimate reward for being good.  That was just the icing on the cake.  The true benefit was the close relationship with God:  being able to walk and talk with Him regularly in the garden.  Everything else that Adam and Eve enjoyed was just a byproduct of that relationship.  

God still wanted that closeness with Adam and Eve, just like He still desires to be intimately close to each one of us.  He simply engineered another way to foster that relationship, outside of Eden. We still long for that intimacy; C.S. Lewis wrote of the God-shaped hole inside of every person's heart. As we mature in Him, the desire to fill that "God space" becomes our primary motivation. We fall in love with Him, and because we love Him, we want to obey Him.  We become less motivated to change because of fear of repercussions or promised rewards, and more by our love for Him.  

The blessings we receive really have nothing do with us, and everything to do with God.  We didn’t earn them -- there’s no way we ever legitimately could.  It’s just an outpouring of God’s love - and who better than the Creator to use giving as His love language?

So how does this relate to service? Well, for many of us, we're not automatically excited about the prospect of serving others. It's messy. But we know we're called to. And so we step out just a little bit, doing some small act, in obedience. And we keep doing just a little bit more, until suddenly, we realize that it has become a way of life for us. It may begin as a chore, but as we mature, it becomes an act of love.

God blesses us, we bless others, who then bless others. Pretty good system, if you ask me.

"There shall be showers of blessing:

This is the promise of love;

There shall be seasons refreshing,

Sent from the Savior above." ----Daniel White, "Showers of Blessing"

Positioning for God's Promises???

When most of us think of being a servant, it's not exactly a job that we'd willingly sign up for. (I think about our last field trip to the Biltmore House, and the opulence of the Vanderbilt's living quarters, paired in sharp contrast to the teeny tiny rooms of the servants, who were almost always on call.) The term "servant" implies a lot of hard work, with little to know pay off. And some of that is true for Christianity."

God keeps reminding me that his view of servanthood is much different though, and it comes with its own set of rewards. I struggle sometimes with the thought of being rewarded by God for obeying him, as I think I should be willing to serve him regardless of the outcome. (More on this in my next blog post) But Leviticus 26 makes it perfectly clear that God wants to bless us. I love the imagery of the whole passage, but here's my favorite part:

“I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I will fulfill my covenant with you.You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest! I will live among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high." Leviticus 26:9-13.

"I will walk among you." We're not required to follow several steps behind, head bowed in submission, and only speak when spoken to. We're not disdainfully treated as inferior, and relegated to the lowest seat at the table (or even another room) like we traditionally view servants. Nope - we get to walk right there with God -- beloved, with our "heads held high." Able to talk with Him about anything that's bugging us, and know that He will give us his full attention.

Probably not rocket science for most of us. It's a thought that's familiar to most of us, courtesy of 1 John 3:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

Like any Father, God he delights in giving his children gifts. Of course, like any good parent, there's also an expectation that we behave. For all you parents out there, would you continue to lavish your children with gifts if they were rebellious, ungrateful, and rejected everything you had taught them? Of course not -- that's the recipe for creating a spoiled brat!

This got me thinking, what blessings might God be eagerly waiting to release in my life, but in his wisdom be holding back because of choices I have made? I know that my relationship with God can't be reduced to mere transactions; it's about relationships, not a carrot-and-stick approach. His desire is for a transformative partnership, not just a series of rewards and punishments. But I also can't just stick out my hand expectantly for God's blessings and believe that He'll just turn a blind eye to the rebellious areas of my life. (And yes, we all have them, don't we!).

It's a delicate balance. Take the carrot and stick approach to far and you end up with a theology that focuses exclusively on a legalistic God to the detriment of grace. Focus too much on the blessings and grace side, and you end up with a theology where God is basically just a bigger version of Santa Claus, showering gifts everywhere. In this scenario, anything goes, because we're all forgiven, anyway.

I'm still not sure where to draw the line, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. (Post away in the comments below, please!)

What I do know is that there's definitely room for some improvement in my life. If that releases blessings in my life, great. If not, that's okay, too. I'm doing it not because I have to, but because I want to. And the good news, of course, is that I'm not expected to clean up my act on my own. Like any good parent, He's more than willing to coach me through the process.



I've just got to be willing to let him show me -- and that's where the servant-hearted spirit comes in again.