What’s going on everyone!! I was meditating on this the other day: God isn’t a vending machine type of God. Just because we may press the right buttons (doing the right things) doesn’t mean that we get the snack at the end (blessings, what we prayed for, things like that). This hit me like a ton of bricks because I’m so guilty of that mindset and attitude.
Have you been to a vending machine? Most people have. Essentially, the concept is that you put your money in it, type in the combination of letters or numbers associated with the snack you want, and then the snack comes out and you get to enjoy. That seems amazing, doesn’t it? The sad thing is that a lot of Christians take this same concept with God.
They believe that if they pray enough, fast enough, throw some encouragement to someone, and then throw some singing in the choir into the mix, that God will pour out blessings, rather the thing they’re asking Him for, for them to enjoy. It doesn’t work like that. Scripture does say “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” (Matthew 21:22). A huge issue is that people take this to justify that God owes us something, or that God doesn’t exist because my prayers didn’t get answered. This is the wrong picture of faith, and even a wrong view of God.
The whole point of this faith is to have a relationship with our Heavenly Father. He is a not a genie in a bottle. He is our Father who desires to have our hearts align with His. Sure, material blessings are amazing and God blesses us with them, but He will also bless us with compassion, or more patience, or other characteristics like that. I firmly believe God wants to expand our vision of Him. He wants our hearts to align with His. The whole point of reading scripture and prayer and even church activities are to know Him deeper and to experience Him so that we can present the right picture to the world. God is not a God that’s transactional. He desires relationship with us, through the good, bad, ups and downs. Let’s change our views of God and really grasp the right view so that we can present the right view of Him to the world.
Much Love,
Ryan W.
