Bone-Throwing

I've come to a solid awareness of something over the past year or so, and I'd like to try to flesh it out. Let's see if I can:

Tests. Trials. Hardship. Anguish. Etc. Etc. - that's the setting. There are many scenes, but only a select cast of characters - definitely you, God, and maybe a loved one, like a spouse. The script, one you wrote yourself, is a thick stack laying on the table before you, full of praying, pleading, wanting, needing. Full of victories, the claiming of God's promises, the growth it takes to move along. Full of hot tears, cold nights, a thickening plot of love and bitterness clashing in battle for your attention, warring over your mind. So again you pray, again you find your quiet place and hunker down to beg the Divine for an answer, for favor, for clarity...for attention...

And you wait...

Gosh, the waiting! It's the salt in the recipe: bitter to the tongue when it's tasted on it's own, but when added to the recipe, the eventual "final" product tastes all the more delicious for having added it. It's a necessary ingredient for a bold, full-flavored dish. A fully-flavored life. Here's what I've had to learn, through the waiting, through the hardships, through the mud-trudging: God is much more generous by nature than we think. I dare say there's been something in Christian culture that has departed from this idea in a certain way, but I believe the correct mentality is on it's way back into our culture, our teaching, and eventually the world as a whole.

Our pastor, Steven Furtick, was talking about this not too long ago - that somewhere along the line, a terrible shift occurred in the minds of believers. We may even do it without realizing it: we claim to have faith in God, but limit Him or put certain clauses in our prayers. One example of this infectious mindset is how we pray. I've done this myself in the past, and I sense it in other people's prayers: "God, please heal her, if it be your will;" that is basically a clause in your prayer saying, "God, I really want this to happen, and I even have faith that it can, but if you decide not to, it's cool." That is faulty faith. It's wimpy faith, actually. True faith doesn't say God can, it knows God will. If it lines up with God's truth - His holy word, His character, His promises - we can count on it. Not saying that God never says no...He definitely does, but that's the exception to the rule, not the standard. The rule is that our prayers matter. They move mountains (Matthew 17:20), they are supposed to contain the Word of God, the life-blood of healing and authority in Christ's name against all evil (Hebrews 4:12). For more on this train of thought, check out Pastor Furtick's amazing book, "Sun Stand Still." It will change the way you pray, and it will help form a healthy view of God's generous character and the punch our prayers should pack.

Part of this incorrect mindset, this faulty faith, is the assumption that God is a bone-thrower. Let me explain: I'm not talking about playing fetch with Fido, I'm talking about God's nature. Many people pray like God is withholding something good from them, like your blessing is in the clutches of an evil villain, ringing his hands and cackling with delight over your heartache. Psalm 84:11-12 says, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord bestows favor and honor, no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you." God is not clenching your blessing or His promises in an angry fist, waiting for you to pray the right prayer or dance the right dance before He'll let it go. In the past I've prayed to Him with all my heart for a break-through, my spirit torn with anguish, begging God - and the whole time, I just wanted Him to throw me a bone. That was my mentality - "Throw me a bone, God, c'mon! Pretty please?" But God is not a bone-thrower...He's an extravagant Giver, and even if He doesn't give it right away, you can rest in His promise that He's cooking something so much tastier than your limited pallet could ever imagine.

Take a look at Luke 15, the story of the Lost Son, and tell me God isn't an overwhelming Giver, gifting us with more than we bargained for, more than we deserve. But that's God, and He loves being that way toward us. You've gotta believe He wants good for you, He longs to bless you. We've gotta stop limiting Him with prayer clauses and faulty faith, with bone-thrower mentalities. We've got to embrace that God is a God of love - our only source of true vitality, hope, promise - after all, He is the Master Chef.