Making a Deal With God
Can you really strike a deal with the Creator of the Universe…to get Him to show you, what He has already told us to do, is indeed what we should do? Look at a couple examples…
Judges 6:36-38 NIV Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised- 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
Many of us know this passage as what we hear today when someone wants to bargain with God by putting out a “Gideon’s fleece”. We say, “sure God, we’ll do what you say without hesitation…AFTER you give us some sign.”
I read of another example of making deals with God in the Bible…another way of hesitating on doing what God wants us to do…
Genesis 28:20-22 NIV Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Sounds straight up like deal making, doesn’t it?
Jacob and Gideon were no different than you and I. How often do we try to make a deal with God? “Lord, if you’ll just give me this promotion at work, I’ll be able to give at church.” “Lord, if you’ll just heal me, I’ll serve you.” “Lord, if you’ll put my marriage back together again, I’ll start going to church more regularly.” “Lord, if you’ll let the Titans win, I promise never to yell at my kids again.”
Of course, if you read on in both stories that God blesses Gideon and Jacob anyway, even if they did try to strike a bargain with Him.
We must realize that God is not someone with whom we can play, “Let’s Make a Deal”. Making a deal with God in order to gain favor isn’t what God wants us to do. Instead, we should be living our lives according to His will all along. Never hesitating to do His what He asks us to do!
After all, the blessings we receive are through God’s grace, because He loves us. We’re never going to talk Him into anything by promising to do those things we should have been doing all along. We should do what we do for Him because we love Him.
We’ll talk much more about this in the message, “The Hesitant Warrior”…part two of our awesome new series, “The Warrior”…this Sunday at 10am at UpRising Church.
We meet at the Bellevue Family YMCA, 8101 Highway 100 in Nashville. You don’t want to miss a single week of the remainder of this series, all through the month of August. Bring a friend!
I have often wondered if people look for signs from God, or try to stike a deal with God, because of outside pressure.
There are so many outside influences today that challenge us each and every day as Christians. They challenge our faith, our service and basis of belief.
Do you think that some of these challenges possibly manifest themselves and subconsciously it leads to us striking deals so that we can prove to others that God exists?