Let me share with all of my blogger friends an experience I had this week. At Sunday's service, our elder/pastor was led to put an amount of money into the offering. I chose by faith to stand with him on that amount, and gave my offering. I am truly of the belief that God really does not care about the amount, He cares about our obedience. Well, the very next day, Monday night, my neighbor comes to my house in the evening (he works second shift and does not get home until after 11:00) and informs me that all of the tires on my vehicles were flat. That's right, I said all the tires! So, of course I turn to my wife and tell her that it seems like each time we obey the Lord, the enemy does something to attempt to discourage us.
However, as I began to analyze this trial on a deeper level, I saw two wonderful things: 1) I did not get upset. Now some of you may think "What is wrong with him? I would be livid!" Well, I did not feel the anger that I may have felt in the past. But the second thing that the Lord showed me during this trial, which was probably the most important, was what I did not think or say. As I was talking to Him this morning, He brought to my attention that I did not even consider the issue of using the money that I gave as an offering. I did not think "I could have used that money that I gave Sunday to repair these tires." In times past, I know I would have given place to that thought. So, I began rejoicing and thanking Him that I know that I have matured in the area of responding appropriately!
God does not care about the outcome of a situation; He only cares about our response to the situation!
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3 comments:
Hi Ron,
"God does not care about the outcome of a situation; He only cares about our response to the situation!"
Just visiting your blog and you have some great things here. I was just wondering where this statement is reflected in Scripture? It seems to me that God DOES care about the outcomes as well as the means.
I think by not getting mad you did respond remarkably to God. I would have been angry. But I also believe, a God who is concerned about justice and suffering, and therefore would be upset that someone slashed one of his children’s car tires. Did your tires only get slashed so God could teach you a lesson and receive a response? Or did your tires get slashed because this is a broken and fallen world that so desperately needs God? Would not the best response overall be, not to look at God for the cause of your tires getting slashed, but to think of the person who did it and verbally declare you forgive them in the same way God forgives us? Yes, God can teach us in these and we do respond to Him, but our relationship with God, and Him with us is so much more than a response to Him.
Therefore, I love Julianne’s question. “Where in the Bible do we see that God is not concerned with the outcome of a situation, only the person's response?”
Very good question indeed. Proposing that God does not really care about the outcome of a situation seems a bit problematic to me and requires some hermetical gymnastics.
I believe the God whom I believe in cares very much about the outcomes of any given situation. I don’t view God as a propositionalist who only cares about our response as of its and ends to a means of a response. If God only cared about our response to a situation, there would be little need for Christ. The Old Covenant system was more concerned about response to God, while the New Covenant saw that response alone was not enough, that a relationship was needed. When I look at the cross, I do not see a response required of myself to God, but God’s response to humanity, which most fully discloses the divine hospitality of God. This God, in the words of Cyril of Jerusalem “God stretched out His hands on the cross, that he might embrace the whole world.”
The cross itself represents God’s concern for humanity. If He was only concerned about our response to Him, the Old Covenant would have remained sufficient. But God knew the Old Covenant sinner/response system was not enough, so He responded himself. The words “The Word became Flesh and Dwelt Amongst us” in the words of Karl Barth “signifies the God who speaks with man in promise and command. It represents God’s existence, intercession, and activity for man…”
The God “only cares about our response” seems to have striking focus on mans reaching to and responding to God, rather than God coming to us and responding to us and to our situation. Yet, The God who came to us did so because he was concerned about our entire being. The word soteria has nothing to do with our response to God, but God’s action to the world, which represents a holistic action (the word implies complete, whole action) of healing and restoration for the whole world (I am not advocating universalism). The God of Romans is a God of action, who responds to man who has fallen short of His glory. This is not a passive God reduced to only caring about the human response.
Does not Jesus Christ’s action on earth reveal the heart of God? Did Jesus only heal people for the end result of hoping they would come to salvation? Why did he embrace the children? Did he only die and rise again so that we would respond to God? Or was all of this revealing That God is active, loves and cares for us, and came to us, not only seeking a response from us, but also to restore us? Isn’t the only response we can give to God conditioned by His action and work in us in some form? Did any of this half to do with active love? Or was it only a passive action that focused on a means to and ends to receive a particular response? This is clearest in Luke, where Jesus’ concern is most fully emphasized on the current situation of the suffering people, rather than their eschatological future. I cannot see how every action God has done on our behalf is only a means to and ends for us to respond to Him. I see it as God responding to us, saying that He is for us, and that he is restoring us.
Even with the Old Testament prophets, Yahweh was very concerned about the present action of his people. One of the biggest faults charged against Israel and Judah by the prophets is that they oppressed the poor and denied justice to the weak (Amos especially). Yahweh did not judge His people as a means to an ends to get a better response. He did so in order that they not only would appropriately respond to YAHWEH, but also live better lives both to YAHWEH and to each other. This God is the God of Esther and Ruth. This is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is a God who has acted for His people through out the biblical narrative, which comes to its fullest sense at the cross. This a God who fights for his people and leads them through life. He does not do this just so we can respond to him, but so that he can be in a covenant relationship with us. God throughout the OT and NT is clearly shown to be concerned with justice and suffering, because they and we are His people.
This is the God who defends the weary and oppressed. Not because they will respond to God better than someone else, but because God’s heart is for the oppressed and broken. It seems to be a bit of a leap to suggest that all of this was for His own sake, coming in the form of a response by us.
I cannot read the Bible as a story of how people responded to God. Rather it is the story of an active God in Creation, Fall, and Redemption (my favorite theological paradigm). I cannot get away from believing God is active and cares for us in every way. In how we live. In how we grow. In the pain we experience. In the joy we experience. Yes, and in how we respond to not only Him, but to those he has placed in our life. I cannot fathom God being so cut off from human existence that He only cares about the end-result—us responding to Him. The Bible is very much a story of the covenant relationship that God has developed with us that will lead to the marriage supper of the lamb. I won’t deny that God is concerned with how we respond to Him, but there seems to be so much more to this covenant relationship than it only being centered on us responding to God. It seems the Bible is a lot more about how God has responded to our failures and sufferings, than how we have responded to Him. I see so much more than only a response from us.
Now I am going to get back to studying for a final exam!
Ron, I understand about the debating part. Outside of required class duscussions I avoid debating. It is okay to discuss issues we disagree on, so long as it doesn't become a debate, but that is difficult. Cause there is no use arguing over non-essential issues. I tossed out what I believe in response to your post and will try and leave it at that. I won't discount your view and I recognize it is a major one held in Christian thought, but I would appreciate at least a little diolgue on my thoughts...just in the form of feedback, not a debate.
peace of Christ,
jason
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