What God Does Not Want

Photo:grist.org

Possession is serious business to God.
The whole earth is mine.--Exodus 19:5
The silver is mine and the gold is mine.--Haggai 2:8
I own the cattle on a thousand hills--Psalm 50:10

Everything God made belongs to Him. Everything.
Because He loves us, he gives us some of it and, from that portion, we are to give some back, and thus worship and honor Him.
He is not joking about this either:
Bring the whole tithe into storehouse...and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.--Malachi 3:10

He's designed a perfect system, really.
He makes stuff; He gives to us; we give back, and so on unto infinity.

But there's one catch.
Some of what we have, He does not want.
Jesus said,
Bring me a denarius. Whose inscription is this? Repay unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.--Mark 12:11-12
God does not want us to give Him what did not come from Him in the first place.

WAIT A MINUTE!
Doesn't everything belong to God?
Yes, it does. Everything He made.
But didn't He make everything?

Hmmm... Think about it. What you have that did not come from God?
Actually, the list is quite long:
Pride
Selfishness
Apathy
Ignorance
Poverty
Ambition
Greed

Should I go on?
As it turns out, we have plenty of things that God did not make, does not own, and does not want. We cannot ever dedicate those to Him. He will not accept them.
And His response to our attempts to do so looks like this:
Unanswered prayer
Rejected requests
Ignored pleas
Wrong turns
Trouble, trouble, and more trouble.

It's all about motive. Just ask Cain and Abel.
God says, Give back my best and I will give you even more.
Try to give what is not worthy and you will be stuck with it.

In the Palm of Your Hand

You already have it, you know.
The world in the palm in your hand.
You have God and God has you. You are safe in His arms for all eternity. What more could you want?
Plenty, as it turns out.

There are two ways to live a Christian life:
The first is to experience salvation and live in the freedom of it.
The second is harder. It is the way of sacrifice:

 If I do not intentionally sacrifice, that is, eschew the things of this world I could otherwise enjoy without sinning, I will live a materially-based Christian life.
I will still go to heaven, and while I'm waiting, will enjoy the world, but I will miss something else.
If I intentionally sacrifice what comes naturally to my physical body, I am more likely to attain a full, spiritual relationship with my God.

Abraham had to offer God Ishmael before he was given Isaac.
I have to do the same.
If you would be my disciple, you must deny yourself...--Matthew 16:24

More is required of a disciple than of a believer, or even of a follower and, if I want to be one, I have to deny myself. Becoming a disciple requires discipline.
I cannot pray my way into this. It requires action. My action.
Jesus has already saved me. Now, He has shown me my part.

So, we have the world in the palm of our hand.
Now, it is for us to turn our hand over and dump it out.
In doing so, we are only making room for the better part.

Coin of the Realm

In the United States, our coins say "In God we Trust."  Kind of an odd place for a God-message, isn't it?  After all, the things of heaven have nothing to do with exchange and commerce, right?  Well, actually, they do.

After a long time, the master returned and settled accounts.  The man who received five talents brought the other five.  "Master," he said, "you entrusted me with five talents.  See, I have earned five more."  The master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things.  I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master's happiness."--Matthew 25:19-21

God Himself, as in the parable, initiates a system of earned rewards and He does it with a presentation, a deposit.   The master gave his servant five talents, something too precious for the servant to have gotten for himself.  In our case, God begins the transaction with life and salvation, gifts way beyond our ability to gain, and He gives them freely. 

Once we receive these, however, things change.

Once we walk into God's open arms of redemption, the business of our life in Him begins.  This is when we become eligible for earned rewards, an increasing share in His kingdom and His goodness.  

We purchase these not with gold or silver or coins saying "In God We Trust", but by actually trusting Him.  We purchase our reward with the coin of God's realm--steadfast faith, righteousness, and the making of disciples.  By these we earn our crown in heaven, a crown based not on God's incomparable gift to us, but by what we have given back to Him.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for His appearing.-2Timothy 4:7-8