Mockery

Luke 23:11 And Herod with his soldiers treated Him with contempt and mocked Him, then arraying Him in splendid clothes sent Him back to Pilate.

I remember one morning about 8 years ago, sitting in Sunday school hearing prayer requests that seemed a bit odd. The one I remember most was a couple that wanted us to pray that God would help them sell their old house, because they had instantaneously without consulting Him brought their dream house in their dream neighborhood, and didn't have the money to pay for both houses for long. When I heard it, it allowed me to see my own misguided practices, as I used to think that I could simply use God to get what I wanted. As our group sat there vocalizing prayer request, an outsider would have probably deduced that our God was equivalent of a short order cook waiting anxiously to fulfill our request on our timetable. I believe that many people subconsciously feel that way, or at least that is what their lives reveal.

First let me say that I believe that God indeed wants to bless and enrich His children, but those blessings and enrichment come according to His plan and may or may not be material. Our two biggest challenges as Americans is that our sin nature encourages us to falsely see everything through lenses of materialism and individualism. As long as we are trapped looking through those lenses, we will miss the beauty of and riches of Christ himself, and the blessings of sharing His love with others. We will mistakenly think that stuff is better than God.

When we try to use Jesus to accomplish our will and direct God to bless it, I believe it is a mockery of the Cross and of Christ's work on it. He has a plan and empowerment for our lives that is designed to bring Him Glory. We mock Him as we try to leverage Him so that we can bring glory to ourselves. That my friend is something I have done way too much of, and it humbles me to think that He has forgiven me and still pours fourth love for me.

So are you a tool being leveraged for the Glory of God, or do you think God is a tool to be used by you to get what you want? The bigger question is which is the end desire of your heart, God or stuff?

We need to really tread carefully with how we handle the grace of Christ. If not we don't look any different than Pilate and his soldiers who mistakenly thought that they controlled Him. What a mistake that was. Don't follow their path. Follow Christ and be used for His Glory!