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Sunday, July 20, 2025

Obligations

"I pray the name of Jesus over you," the song says, and I'm trying to parse that to figure out what it means. "The name of Jesus" appears to be some magic incantation which, if properly applied can produce pleasant outcomes. Maybe "over" means "If I loft it properly, it will settle on your head." Of course, that's just me being silly, but I can't figure out where that comes from. Somehow someone has come to the conclusion that this phrase causes an obligation on God's part to do nice things. Or ... take the signs I've seen all my life. "Spiritual Revival this weekend!" It's odd that you can schedule a revival. Maybe they got a memo from the Spirit and He'll be showing up ... this weekend. Not next weekend ... just this one.

I'm sure by now you see I'm being a little tongue in cheek, but I believe there really is this notion in the minds of many ... most ... people that God has certain obligations to meet on our behalf. They're mad when He fails to meet them. We think a good God would be nice to us, so when we perceive something as not nice, we think God has failed to meet His obligations. We read that God's wrath is revealed from heaven against men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness and ungodliness (Rom 1:18) and we think, "That's not fair. God's not being fair." We read that God chooses some for salvation (e.g., Eph 1:4-6) and think, "He's supposed to choose all." We've made a serious miscalculation.

Scripture is clear. Christ is above all (Eph 1:21). All things are under His feet (Eph 1:22). Everything is from, through, and for Christ (Rom 11:36). His creation doesn't get the right to demand anything from Him because He is not obligated by His creation. We should probably get that straight in our own minds.
You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, "He did not make me"; or the thing formed say of Him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? (Isa 29:16)

2 comments:

David said...

I've heard people say they don't believe in God because of He's omnibenevolent, then He's doing a poor job of it. My first reaction is, where did this idea of God being omnibenevolent come from? Omnibenevolent and all good are not the same terms. But then I ask, what have we done to deserve God's goodness? You really want God to just be nice to everyone, even though we hate Him, and rebel against Him, and murdered Him when we got our chance? Try starting with being thankful you're even still alive before you go around complaining about the poor conditions here.

Lorna said...

We humans really do need to learn our place--and stay there. God is God, and we are not. So plain and simple! Thanks for continuing to encourage that badly needed attitude adjustment.