Get real!

Luke 18:1 – 28

I was raised in a Christian home. I am a second generation Christian; it has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages; that we should be able to easily pass our parents in their faith because they have gone before us and dug up the ground of our faith. We also have seen the struggles and failures of those who have gone before us and should be able to avoid those problems and failures. Some of the disadvantages; we can become complacent, resting on our parents faith, or we build false ideas of what God wants based not on reality but on what we think God wants.

Jesus begins this passage with two examples of prayer. Both of them are about being real with God.

How many times have you been told something similar to this, “It must be God’s will that’s why you are going through what you are going through.” Some times the Lord does walk us through hard places but we need to know it. We should never give up, or accept anything as God’s will for our lives until we have heard from God for ourselves. The woman wants justice, an answer from the judge, she could have given up but instead she would not rest until she got an answer. God is not badgered by our looking for Him or an answer from Him. He wants us to seek him with all of our heart. He wants us to get real, to let him know how we feel and to not give up and until we are satisfied that He has spoken to us. Never give up until you know you have heard from God.

The next example Jesus gives is of two different attitudes; one real and one religious. The Pharisee was praying so that all could hear how righteous he was, he was not communicating to God but to the people around him. God knows what we have done, we don’t need to rattle off our grocery list of achievements, don’t get me wrong, there are times the Lord wants us to remind him of His promises and what we have done to place ourselves in a position to receive those promises. For example, Malachi says for the Lord if we tithe God will open the windows of heaven. If you are giving at least ten percent of your income to your local fellowship then God says test me and see if I won’t open the windows of heaven. If the windows of heaven aren’t being opened for you that take that to God. The Pharisee’s attitude was all about him telling God how great he is. He did not need God. The tax collector’s attitude was simple “God I need you!”. It is not that God needs to be needed but that when we are trying to be all that we can, if we realize we can’t do it without God then God is blessed and He makes it happen. We are not our own gods! “God is God and we are not”, as the song says!

God really loves us. He knows all about us, therefore nothing can be hidden from Him. So don’t try to be fake in your relationship with Him. Get real! I believe God enjoys us just being who we are around Him and then we know what needs work and we know He will do the work in us.