03 Mar Heaven’s Great Risk/Reward Promise
“God will often deliver us in a manner which seems, initially, to destroy us.” – Daniel Defoe
This is one of the most helpful and instructive quotes I have ever heard. It is the essence of an eternal perspective, which is essential if we are to be in touch with reality as we live our Christian life.
Through this foundational truth, we conclude that the risk we might fear the most… giving up complete control of our lives to God… is actually the doorway to the highest reward in life.
But it’s hard for me to do. And I’m not alone. C.S. Lewis said, “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self – all your wishes and precautions – to Christ.”
Our natural strategy for happiness
By nature, I want God to make my life on earth go better. I want to be nice and good, work hard and be smart, and as I do, call on God to bless my well-laid plans… so that with my effort and a little help from Him, my life on earth will be healthy, prosperous and happy.
But for me, that plan has never worked. Things are always going wrong.
When things begin to go wrong, my instinct is to grab hold of things… to try to increase my control of life’s circumstances, and try to do for myself what God in His “negligence” (as it feels) has failed to do for me.
God, of course, takes objection to my response, and in His severe mercy, begins to pry my controlling fingers off that which I’m clutching. And as He does, I am left with one of three options…
- Live in fear of Him
- Live in anger toward Him
- Submit completely to Him
The supernatural strategy for happiness
When I submit completely to Him, I discover that – hard as it might be – the option that I feared the most is actually the doorway to the life I long for. My greatest dread… giving up self-determination and willingly submitting to God… is the very doorway to the supreme treasure of life.
The Bible teaches this clearly, of course. But instinctively I resist believing it, because self-protection, self-advancement, and self-fulfillment are the core motivations of my natural inclinations.
The Apostle Paul spells it out in Romans 12:1. “I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship.”
Then he appeals: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2). Becoming a living sacrifice leads to a renewing of the mind which leads to a transformed life.
That which we want most, a transformed life, begins with becoming a living sacrifice.
A living sacrifice chooses to die. It is not killed. And choosing to die goes against all natural inclinations.
Like rappelling off a high mountain cliff, your brain might reason that you are safe… that the rope will hold you. But your emotions are screaming for you to turn around and run.
So it is in the Christian life. We understand the point of Romans 12:1, we just have a good deal of difficulty putting it into practice.
God’s primary goal
Yet it is the primary thing God is doing in our lives… bringing us, if we will come… to the point of being living sacrifices. Again, C.S. Lewis writes:
“Make no mistake,” [God] says, “if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through.”
So, one of the great life lessons is, “don’t fight God.” Don’t try to fight or shrink or hide from God. Willingly submit to the refinement process He takes us through. If we fight it, we will diminish our potential, reduce our joy, shrink our power, and decimate our impact.
Continuing his comments on this subject, Lewis writes: “[God] claims all, because He is love and must bless. He cannot bless us unless He has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There’s no bargaining with Him.”
Conclusion
So, again, this is not hard to understand… just hard to do. We have to keep reminding ourselves of this fundamental principle. And when we “get it” on one level, God keeps driving to help us get it on an even deeper level.
It helps me to remind myself of this final C. S. Lewis quote:
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you know that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of–throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace!”
So, let’s ask the Lord to give us grace to believe… and believing, to obey and rest in all He wants to do in our lives. Because He loves us, He does not want us to settle for less.
Let’s risk being a living sacrifice that we might enjoy the promised reward of a transformed life.
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