Do you sometimes find speed bumps along the way while reading Scripture? You know! That’s when you’re reading along in a chapter of the Bible and all of a sudden, you feel your mind or heart go up in the air and you think, “Why is that there?” Just as a speed bump in the road tells you, “Slow down!,” a speed bump in your spirit is the Holy Spirit saying, “Slow down! Pay attention to why this is here.”
I hit a Scripture Speed Bump this morning as I continued reading Romans. I’m currently reading Romans 11-16 every day and usually try to read in a different translation so that I don’t get too used to the wording of one version. And so this morning Romans 11 had a speed bump while I read it in the NCV: New Century Version.
(By the way, you might be thinking, “Kathy sure has a lot of different Bibles.” Actually, I read different versions at www.biblegateway.com.)
It always surprises me, but it shouldn’t, that a verse I’ve read many times can get a speed bump. It just goes to show how we can scan over something and not pay attention and/or the Spirit wants to stop us to reveal something to us. Option #2 is what happened this morning as I read Romans 11:34-36:
“‘Yes, God’s riches are very great, and his wisdom and knowledge have no end! No one can explain the things God decides or understand his ways. As the Scripture says,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been able to give him advice?” — Isaiah 40:13
“No one has ever given God anything
that he must pay back.” — Job 41:11
Yes, God made all things, and everything continues through him and for him. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (NCV)
I hit the speed bump when I read the words I highlighted in red. I stopped and thought, “What’s that got to do with anything?” It just didn’t seem to apply to the point. Paul has been talking about how the Gentiles were grafted in and the Jews were un-grafted and how it’s all up to God’s choice and mercy. I could see how the previous verse applied but my mind couldn’t grasp the verse that Paul quoted from Job 41:11.
So I went to Job 41 where God is telling Job about how just as it’s useless to try to tame the great Leviathan, it’s useless to try to tame Him. And then God says to Job: “No one has ever given me anything that I must pay back, because everything under the sky belongs to me. (Job 41:11 NCV).
My brain still wasn’t connecting all the dots but eventually I got it: “God doesn’t owe you anything, Kathy.” If we give someone something we usually have a sense that they owe us. Either they’ll need to return it or they must reciprocate. But God is saying, “Regardless of what you do for me, I don’t owe you anything. There’s nothing I need and there’s nothing you can give me that I don’t already own.”
Yet I hate to say it, we sometimes operate as if God owes us. I’ve talked about entitlement before and these verses go right along with it. And this all goes along with our current verse in Romans 13:14: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
What are one of the ways we “make provision for our flesh?” By having an attitude that God owes us. I’m reading Red Like Blood: Confrontations with Grace by Joe Coffey and Bob Bevington. Joe tells about how his younger brother, a sophomore in college, was killed in a head-on motorcycle accident along with his rider, a 14-year-old from the youth group. Joe tells about how Rachel and Jacob had household gods and then writes, “I realized as I stood knee deep in the aftermath of the storm [brother’s death], my faith floating like so many splinters around me, that I really had nothing more than a household god. As a minister and the son of a minister I thought I had a contract with God. My family would serve him and in exchange he would take care of us. It seemed like a no-brainer to me. I found out on that Monday night that God had not signed the contract and without a contract a household god is pretty worthless. I picked my god up and threw him as far as I could.”
Joe had made provision for the flesh through his “no-brainer” one-sided contract with God. In another part of the book he talks about how the disappointment with God not keeping His part of the contract resulted in anger at God which led to a three-year depression.
But Joe ended up “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ” by repenting of his disappointment and his wrong expectation. He writes, “Pain tempts me to question the heart or the head of God. I only need to take a look in either a telescope or a microscope to be reminded of his head. I only need to take a look at the cross to be reminded of his heart. God, forgive me for my simple math [of trying to figure you out].”
When you and I begin to believe God owes us (and we’re making provision for the flesh), we only need to look at the cross which reminds us of our sin and our utter unworthiness of anything good. And then we look at Jesus on the cross and see God’s love for you and me. If He was willing to give up His most valuable person, then whatever He allows in our lives is within His definition of “love.”
Maybe you’re going through something really hard and it’s hard to see and feel God’s love. Maybe this situation is even stuffing provisions into your back pack labeled “reasons to distrust God.” Throw out that back pack and put on the Lord Jesus Christ instead. I’m not saying it’s easy to do; but by focusing on the cross, you can throw out your “entitlement” household god.
The universe is like a shaken bottle of water. The water represents timespace, energy the Father, "the substance of things hoped for"- Heb11:1. The air represents probability, energy the Holy Spirit, "the evidence of things not seen"- Heb11:1.The bottle itself represents the limitation of impossibilities. The shaking is the one substance exerting its oneness in one direction stirring closed circuitry, represented by the bubbles, that there be something to move out of the way and fill in behind, that all circulating the same way repel, by the basis of Planck's volume, "the stone which the builders rejected" – Mat21:42, energy the Son, administering orthogonality that not only pushes for confluence for undifferentiation but temporarily blocks the processes of undifferentiation. But, by the second law of thermodynamics undifferentiation is naturally inevitable, centripetal undifferentiating greater than centrifugal orthogonal blocking. Each bubble eventually ceases to exist having its original eternal nonexistence restored. What is it that God took away from us that He didn't give us, therefore that He owes us back? NONEXISTENCE!
Actually, the bible says that if we are kind to one another, it’s like we are lending God something. So God does “owe” us his reward (or His blessings) if we are kind towards others.
Proverbs 19:17 says “Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and he will give a reward to the lender.”
Job on the other hand (beginning from chapter 38 to 41) tells the reader that God is boasting about His greatness. Who can compare to Him? He created all those things. No amount of your offerings (your material possessions) given to God will make Him owe you, because everything under the sky belongs to God.
In other words, you cannot make God bless you, based on how big your offering is. He doesn’t owe you anything, in this regard.
God would rather for His people to obey Him, than to give Him “offerings” (verses at 1 Sam 15:22 & Hosea 6:6 are the perfect examples).
So that means, God would rather for us to be kind to one another than to give our material possessions to Him. If you do that, it’s like you are giving God a loan and He will surely bless you.
Jesus taught his disciples the same thing at Matthew 5:24 when he said: “leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
Thank you for your insights, Yusuf. I sure appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to share. I love hearing from my readers about their perspective. Thanks for yours!
I’m so blessed by your this.So I lost my 6year old son to leucaemia 2019,my hubby and I prayed to God to restore life back to him together with our pastors but nothing.Even though I didn’t express it ,but I was disappointed at God for leaving me and allowing me go through such pain knowing that I’m a woman with physically challenges myself.I didn’t say any blasphemy was I was hurting inside untill I stumbled on your write-up. So God owes me nothing as everything He gave me was by His grace and mercy God bless you and hope to get a reply🙏
Thank you so much for sharing, Adenike. I can’t imagine the pain of losing your son. And then when we expect God will answer our sincere prayer “Yes” and He doesn’t, it’s very very difficult. I applaud your faith in asking Him. I’m sad it wasn’t His will for your son to live. I don’t understand God’s ways totally and why sometimes He says yes and sometimes no. But I do know He cares about you and loves your honesty with Him–because He knows your feelings any way. I’m grateful to know something I said in my post was meaningful. Please continue walking with Him and continue to believe He knows best even when the answer is “no.” God loves you!
What a joy to hear from you, Simphiwe. Welcome to my blog! I appreciate your comments!
Thank you for this, I had the same argument. But the problem with mine is, I was still feeling very entitled because of the things I have gone through. I felt Entitled to Gods blessings and that led to me being lazy among other things, that is/was wrong, for which I repent. Feeling or behaving like God owes us leads to pride.
Thank you, Nkateko, for sharing. I think many people, me included, do struggle with thinking our trials entitle us to God’s blessings. I praise God that you were willing to see how that idea was affecting you and drawing your heart away from God. God bless you.