Trying to Control God

"If I go to church, pray, give money to the church, and avoid anything really bad I am confident God will give me the new house that I want and need." That kind of thinking is so natural, popular, and WRONG. There is a foundational thought to such reasoning and it goes something like this: God exists for our happiness and well-being; therefore, God must respond to my needs and desires, especially if I favor Him in some way. Surely, the thinking is rooted in the assumption that God does not have any other purpose than to take care of humans and bestow blessings upon them. This error creates the "crisis of faith" experienced so often when bad things happen, even though the people they happen to are "good" and pray. The conclusion is that God must not exist because otherwise He would not have allowed the pain, suffering, and disappointment.

Be honest; do you think like this? Is it your opinion that by doing good deeds of some sort, you can control God and cause Him to answer your prayers? If that is how you are accustomed to thinking, you are far removed from the truth about God, about yourself, and about how God works.

First, God is GOD! That means that He exists in and of Himself and has need of nothing. Moreover, whatever and whoever God has created He has created for His own glory and grace:

Proverbs 16:4 - The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.

Daniel 4:35 - All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, "What have You done?"

The beginning of wisdom is to fear God. God reigns according to His own sovereign purpose. That purpose is both gracious and just. We must bow humbly!

Second, all human beings have fallen from their original state of created perfection and have become guilty in God's sight. "Guilty" means liable to punishment, deserving of God's just retribution. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, in which and for which they were created. Consequently, it is a wonder that "bad" things do not happen to all constantly! The fact that so many good and enjoyable days are granted by God to His enemies, is what should amaze us. The reason people have trouble accepting the grief and sorrow visited upon man is because it is assumed that man is good and that God must bless him. That is far from the true. Life only begins to make sense when that fact is accepted humbly.

Third, the only way to God is Jesus Christ. Out of His unfathomable love, God gave Himself in Christ to become man and to endure the punishment that human sin justly deserves. Having first earned God's acceptance and blessing by a life of perfection, Jesus Christ died under the just wrath of God. He offered Himself to God in the place of the guilty, taking their guilt and penalty. His resurrection gave testimony to the fact that God accepted His sacrifice as payment in full for human beings. Now, every confessing sinner who believes on Christ, making Him all his hope with God, is accepted into a relationship of peace and blessing. All God's purposes for that person are good. Even his troubles are calculated and controlled for good. And when the believer in Jesus prays in accordance with Scripture, God hears and answers for the sake of Christ. The believer does not control God. God controls him. Even so, God has freely pledged to withhold no good thing from him whose life is lived in Christ (Ps. 84:11).

Dear friend, please abandon all thought of controlling God. That is the path to self-destruction. Instead, humble yourself, believe on Christ, and trust God to keep His promises in Christ.