The Lottery God

OK I don’t mean to be rude, but everybody trying to win the lottery with your little strategies, THEY DON’T WORK! I don’t care how many times you win, for every superstition that works out there are 10.000 that don’t. But then again, we’re sort of programmed to get things to work. Everyone who’s ever owned a NES has their own trick to getting the games to work. Some people pushed the cartridge left, some pushed it right. As a people we are inclined to make things work, even if what we do has no barring on what we’re doing. Sometimes in our human thought process we try to do the same thing with God. We try to win God’s affection by doing good things. One of the main things to learn with Christianity is that it really is a balancing act. Take the prayer of Jabez,
1 Chronicles 4:9,10 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.
This is a great verse that shows how God wants us to ask him for what we want. and when we go to him with faith, he is good to give us what we desire. What this passage is not, is a way to manipulate God to do what we want. You can’t just put God in a spiritual headlock. The Idea that God is happy or unhappy with us and treating us accordingly is called “will worship” it’s where we try to impose our will on God. If you read the story of Jacob (Genesis 25-36ish,) you’ll find that Jacob started to try to put terms on God’s promises but God wasn’t having any of it. It wasn’t until later in life, when Jacob was ready to submit, that God began to fulfill his promises to Jacob. And the important thing to remember is that the lesson isn’t, submit to God and that’s how you get what you want. That mind set is still will worship. The trick is to love God more then your own wants, desires, opinions and otherwise. When that happens, then your rebellious spirit will be quenched and God will be more then willing to give you stuff, more then your earthly father Matthew 7:11 Either way, when you pray, go to church, or are living out your everyday life, remember, Your relationship with God needs to be about getting what God wants from you, not what you want from God. God bless and I love all of you.