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Advent Calendar day 9: The Genie in a Bottle

A few days ago my husband and I while on a long journey started to chat about our heart desires and one of mine is definitely to have lots of money; and like most “charismatic” Christians this desire has translated into many a fervent prayer over the past year. I have said things to God like “If I can have $XYZ, I will do this and that” and while these desires and prayers in and of themselves are not bad, sometimes I have used prayer to make requests like one would do a genie in a bottle.

Frankly, this is not just a ‘me’ problem- while many Christians will not openly admit this, many of us treat God like a genie in a bottle. In classic genie stories, no one wants to be friends with the genie (except in the latest Aladdin movie). The genie is only good for 3 wishes. Similarly, sometimes we go to God and rattle off all our requests with no interest in a relationship. We are “God give me this or God give me that” Christians. Most of these requests are usually things related to earthly comforts: more money, higher paying job, bigger car, bigger house, a shiny new husband or wife and the list goes on and on. Again, let me emphasize that none of these requests are wrong- in fact God invites us to make our requests known to him. Where we go amiss is when we desire the gifts more than the giver; when godliness is treated like a ticket/ passageway to having good gifts and advancing ourselves in life; after all whatever we need is just a prayer away. The scripture today warns against such ideology and describe it as false doctrine:

If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Timothy 6:3-6 NIV

Instead, Paul encourages Timothy to practice godliness with contentment. So lets talk about that a little bit. Does that mean we do not desire God’s blessings that give us earthly comforts or seek advancement in life? By no means! How God speaks to me regarding practicing this is not to be so dissatisfied with the blessings He has already given me to the extent that I compromise my integrity to change my status. God assures me that when I outgrow the comforts and luxuries I currently possess, he will bring me to a larger place. He will continue to draw the boundary lines for me in goodly places and bring me into my own. This is his promise to me and the good news is that I do not have to help him to do this! All I have to do is continue to seek Him and He will keep adding to me. That is what it means to me to practice godliness with contentment.

I know most of you send me comments on these posts (thank you) so today I want to engage you as we reflect together on this topic. What does godliness with contentment mean to you? Drop me a line and continue to be intentional in all your endeavors.

Yours Truly

Posted on by intentional4christ · 1 Comment

How will you bow?

Lets start with an exercise: Think about your best image of God. Who is He? What is He like? How would you describe Him to a 3-year old? For the past few weeks I have been reading the book of Job and although this will be at least the third time I have read this book, I am seeing it from such a new perspective. Job talks about God’s superiority and sovereignty in ways that are both awe-inspiring but can also leave you feeling very helpless before this powerful God. He says things like:

“To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his. What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; those he imprisons cannot be released. If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land. To him belong strength and insight; both deceived and deceiver are his. He leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of judges. He takes off the shackles put on by king and ties a loincloth around their waist. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows officials long established. He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders. He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty. He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light. He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them. He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he makes them wander in a trackless waste. They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.” Job 12:13-35 NIV.

Job and his friends described the God-man relationship in a manner where God is this inapproachable powerful being. They described God by his deeds; the things they had seen or heard or imagined Him do. Similarly, the Israelites’ perspectives of God versus that of Moses were very different. The Israelites looked to God for things: the meeting of their physical needs of food, water, shelter; protection from their enemies; healing from diseases and so on and so forth. The Israelites only knew God for his deeds but Moses’ relationship was different. He actually knew God for who he truly was.

He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.

Psalm 103:7 NLT

Job’s characterizations of his relationship with God so far (up until Job 12 that is) is nothing compared to our modern-day- live-under-grace characterizations. While everything Job says about God’s nature is truth, God still invites us by virtue of grace into relationship where we can know him for who He truly is . Unfortunately instead of grace giving us the advantage of a deeper relationship where we can know God beyond our needs, many of us relegate God to the position of all powerful being who we call upon when we cannot figure out things for ourselves. This genie-in -the-bottle mentality pedaled as the essence of Christianity and preached as the “prosperity” gospel (although many of us will not deign to admit that we treat God this way) only serves to rob us of having a deeper connection to our amazing God.

This week in church the pastor made a statement that inspired this post. Now for some mental exercise:

Come back to your image of who God is and picture this: You are standing before God at the end of your time here on earth and then in enters Jesus in all his majestic splendor. In accordance with the scripture says that “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth…Phil 2: 10ESV” you WILL bow, but how will you bow? Will you bow in reverent worship and recognition of the great King with whom you had formed a relationship with while you walked the earth? Will you bow in excitement that you’ve finally made it across the other side of eternity and you can finally get to see the full image of God who had been showing glimpses of himself to you all through your journey on earth? Will it be like meeting a date for the first time after years of zoom calls and facetiming? OR will you bow in abject terror of this God because your “genie” turned out to be nothing like you imagined? Will your knees buckle at the realization that you missed out on the great opportunity earth afforded you to get to know God and now you are in the presence of a stranger? Would you bow in shame, pleadingly asking for mercy?

So here’s the question of the week: How will you bow?

Yours Truly

P.S. The food box is going great! I will do a post about it in a few weeks but for those of you eager to hear about it: it has inspired something within the community and people have anonymously thrown in cans of food. Thanks to all who have donated so far and to all who have encouraged me through prayer and kind words. Together, we are on mission for God!