Name it and claim it?

When I became a Christian, I thought that God would be something like my dad. I had been a sick child and my parents were told I would not live beyond sixteen, so my dad gave me most of what I wanted. Of course I soon discovered that God is not like that. While He supplies everything I need, He is not a genie in a bottle or my personal servant.

That experience makes me sensitive to the fact that many people come to God with expectations, and their desires are often so strong that they read them into every promise in the Bible. They assume God is there to grant them all their wishes and fulfill all their hopes. Some even say that if you are not getting what you want, it is because you don’t have enough faith, or because Satan has you bound. Many subscribe to what is called a “name it and claim it” philosophy, but this is not faith in God as the wise and sovereign Lord of their lives, but a ‘faith’ that wants God to be their personal servant.

In my own life, this notion at first seemed a childish idea of God. Many children adopt it, sometimes unconsciously, since their father is the human in their life with the most power and authority. However, as I grew in my faith and in my knowledge of God and of myself, I realized that thinking this way was just another way to be selfish. My dad didn’t always let me have my own way, or let me do my own thing, but if I could get God to do what I wanted, I would retain control of my life. Who then is the god in this arrangement?

This is not to say God is a meanie and will never give me anything that I desire. It simply means that I do not pull His strings. Israel is an example. That nation was God’s choice to bring His truth to the world. However, they were not obedient to Him, so He sent them into captivity where they learned some valuable lessons. He also sent a prophet to tell them what would happen to them after that experience:

For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive (Jeremiah 29:10-14).

God’s greatest desire for His people is not plush comfort, but freedom from the bondage of sin and rebellion. He knows what is best for me; He created me. He also knows how to produce in me a desire to love and follow Him. Sometimes that requires hardship for me, but in the end, I will not only call on Him and find Him, but I will enjoy Him and enter into that abundant life that Jesus promised.

In other words, God works in my life to produce obedience with a Christlike attitude, and this is a priority over riches, comfort, even health. While not every poor or sick person is being disciplined by the Lord, that cannot be ruled out. Neither can anyone postulate that God wants all of us wealthy and healthy. We will be that—in heaven, but this is not heaven.

In fact, if I were never sick, never in pain, never in trouble, totally exempt from trials, then I would have reason to be greatly concerned. The Bible says:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons” (Hebrews 12:5-8).

On the other side of the coin, consider Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Satan promised the Lord everything in this world if He would just worship and follow him. When I want everything in this life, and think that God somehow owes me or will give it to me, who am I really following? Scarey thought.

Medical update: At bedtime last night the colors began to appear. This morning the side of my face is swollen and in various shades of green and black. Still very little pain though, for which I am thankful.