Whatever You Ask

I keep singing the lyrics of the Dave Matthews song "So Much to Say" in my head as I try to hone in on what it is that I am getting at in this post - I have two or three things working on my mind right now and they don't seem to intertwine but as I write it out it could all come together...or not. So, if you are reading this and it doesn't come together for you in the end then I'm sorry!

The first thing that I got stumped over this morning was a quote from Timothy Keller's book, "Prodigal God". I just finished the last few pages today and he said that he had a lady in his congregation who was taught a message of "merited" salvation growing up - that she could earn God's favor through her actions and so the concept of "unmerited" salvation by sheer grace was new to her.

In her words: "That is a scary idea! Oh, it's good scary, but still scary. If I was saved by my good works then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace - at God's infinite cost - then there's nothing He cannot ask of me!"

I had to read that several times through and really think about the meaning of her statement. What I came to was this: In our lives when we earn something then we control the boundaries of what we have earned. But when something is a free gift then we are not in control of the boundaries of the gift - the giver is. For example, if you pay for your own wedding then you are in control of all of the decisions. When someone else pays for it they may allow you to make all of the decisions but at their choosing they could make all of the decisions and you would not be able to say anything to the contrary. There is an indebtedness that we feel to someone that gives to us, there is a certain control that that person can have over you depending on the size of the gift. As believers, that gift is LIFE. So, there is no limit over what God can ask of us!

Scary? Yes, at first glance but not with God. Why? Because our God is love and all that He would ever ask of us would be for His glory and our good. "God is not a man that He should lie or a son of man that He should change His mind. Has He said and will he not do it? Or has He spoken and will He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19) And again in Isaiah 45:5, "I am the Lord and there is no other." God is "other" not "same". He is not like the human masters that we serve, He is not like us, He is other than us which means that we cannot comprehend what He is apart from His word. When we are faced with the idea of entrusting our lives and being subject to someone we can see how our lives would be affected as "slaves" by the kind of master that we serve. If you have a harsh or cruel master then your life would be negatively affected. On the other hand, if you have a loving and kind master then your life would be positively affected.

In modern times we don't use these words, we say "employee" and "employer" or we say "child" and "parent" or we say "student" and "teacher". I use the terms "slave or servant" and "master" to get us thinking about the terminology of being "bond-servants" or "bond-slaves" of Christ. Paul refers to himself as the "bond-servant" of Christ. So, why associate ourselves with slavery when God died to set us free? A bond-servant was one who had been set free but willingly chose to continue to serve his master. As a slave, to stay and serve after you have been given your freedom has to say something about the kind of master that you have. Who willingly chooses to be a servant to a cruel, harsh master? However, if your life as a servant was better than a life lived on your own, wouldn't you stay?

So, that brings us full circle to being able to understand what it means that it is "good" scary that God can ask anything of us without limits. We serve a God who will only ask if it is for His glory and our good. He wouldn't ask unnecessarily, He wouldn't ask to try and humiliate you, He wouldn't ask to pass the buck because He doesn't want to get His hands dirty - He isn't like the human masters that we serve - He is altogether lovely, altogether worthy and altogether wonderful!

I have to pause and think, what does that mean for me? How does this affect how I live for my Master? I cannot define the limits of my own salvation because it was not my gift to give. I cannot say, "Okay God, only this far and that's enough." (Although, in the last few months I have definitely tried!) From human terms that is VERY scary! What if He asks me to bear a burden or do something that hurts for His glory? What if He asks me to suffer loss and give up some comforts I have grown accustomed to for His glory? What if He asks me to die? Do I get to say, "No?" The question that is more important - would I want to? I don't want to say no, I want to be faithful and trusting and say "Yes, Lord, here I am, send me!" But truthfully, that brave woman is only in my mind, she is not in my heart. Oh Lord, only You can make me brave, only You can make me trust, only You can make me strong. Grant me by your Holy Spirit the ability to say, "Yes, Lord, whatever you ask, yes!"