Giving to God

With Father’s Day approaching, sons and daughters will be thinking, ‘what can I give to Dad that will show my love and give him pleasure?’ Jesus taught his followers to relate to God as their Heavenly Father. What might we want to give to such a Heavenly Father and why?

A rich young man once asked Jesus, ‘What good thing must I do to get eternal life?’. He wanted God’s favour and blessing and apparently thought he could get this by doing something for God or maybe giving something to Him. It is easy to fall into a similar mindset as though, before we can strike up a meaningful relationship with God, we must get on the right side of him by doing this or giving that.

Whatever we may ‘give’ to God, he isn’t in need of anything seeing as he made all things and, in the final analysis, all things belong to him. Neither can we ‘do’ certain good things in order to make ourselves acceptable to him; how would we know when we’d done enough and what about the bad things we’ve already done?

Of course, we are indeed able to give and do things that bring pleasure to God, but such things are not currency that can put God into our debt. The Bible reminds us, ‘Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?’ It’s stating the obvious really - all we have comes from God anyway.

A dad gives his son pocket money. He’s delighted to receive a willingly given Father’s Day present, being fully aware that the youngster had no means of his own aside from what his dad gave him in the first place. Similarly, God wants to bless us so that we have the means of blessing him.

The Good News of the Christian message is that Jesus offers to put us in right relationship with his Heavenly Father by forgiving the bad things we’ve done. Then he gives us the means to give and do the good things that please God. He is blessed and we are too. This is father-child relationship at its best.

Riches for the poor and weak

Some disdain religion by saying it just gives life meaningful (albeit naïve) structure for people who are largely poor and uneducated. At some points this view connects with Christian teaching. One New Testament writer asks, ‘Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?’ Another New Testament writer presses the point even more: ‘God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised…’

We are meant to interpret such teaching as a warning. We may think we have it all together, that we are reasonably comfortable and secure; in other words, self-sufficient. If we do, then God and his purposes for us may be of little interest and something of an unwanted intrusion into our lives.

Jesus tells a story about a rich farmer who was prospering and expanding his business and who said, ‘…I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’. But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ Jesus explains, ‘This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God’.

To be rich towards God means firstly to recognise our spiritual poverty and weakness before a perfect God and to welcome his Son, Jesus, who graciously wills to forgive us for sidelining him. Secondly, now that we can be assured of being in a right relationship with God, we can afford to be rich towards him with things that he values and delights in; things such as our humility, trust, heartfelt gratitude and a desire to honour him as our God. The result is joy all round.

Living the good life

“He had a good life,” someone may say of the recently deceased friend or relative. However, the more pressing question is: “Did he live a good life?” But then what is a ‘good’ life?

One of the ‘hard’ sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount was: “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Some Christian teachers, seeing insurmountable difficulties in this saying, have tried to explain it in terms of translation: there may be shades of meaning in the word rendered ‘perfect’. But I ask you, can you imagine Jesus saying he wanted his followers to aim at second best? How could he, speaking in God’s name, sanction anything less than his own perfect character? If he did, it would be a moral lapse on his part.

What a relief therefore, that this perfect God who accepts nothing less than perfection, has provided us less-than-perfect men and women (known in the Bible as ‘sinners’) with a solution. He has offered us his forgiveness; he will be merciful to us; though such grace only comes our way when we embrace the Easter message. Jesus’ death on the cross sees an exchange taking place. Our imperfections are like debits going into our ‘God account’ and Jesus takes these on to his own account. Then he transfers to us his own credits of perfection.

For those of us who find it in our hearts to accept that this is the way of things and who desire to receive that forgiveness, an amazing thing happens. No longer are we content to say “Well no-one’s perfect are they?”. Instead, we want to be what Jesus wants us to be – perfect. That’s a goal that cannot be faulted. The fact that perfection will not come in this earthly life is irrelevant and certainly doesn’t need to dampen motivation.

An early follower of Jesus named Paul, moved by Christ’s love for him said: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me…. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on…”

Don’t accept second best. Why not let Jesus Christ take a hold of you and then aim at perfection?