It’s a terrible burden to be your own god.
Although, some people do it pretty well. They seem to manage their lives just fine, without any apparent need for God. (I haven't been that good at it myself, but that hasn't kept me from trying.)
But, it still seems like an enormous amount of us live under the constant, unrelenting pressure to bless ourselves. That is to be primarily responsible for our welfare.
The burden of this pressure to be our own gods occurred to me while preparing to teach on one of the oldest poems in the Bible. It’s only three lines, fifteen words. Three words in the first line, five in the second, seven in the third. The number of syllables and consonants are also ordered: 12, 14, 16 and 15, 20, 25. (In Hebrew). It’s called Aaron’s Blessing. It’s how God told Moses that Aaron should put God’s blessing on the Israelites. I’m sure that you have heard it before.
The LORD bless you and keep you:
The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)
Notice that it uses the name of God three times, very unnecessary grammatically. It’s the personal name of God, Yahweh. Yaheh, Yahweh, Yahweh. Pretty emphatic about God wanting to bless our lives
Imagine. God’s best hope for your life is that you experience his goodness and blessing. I bet you think that God’s best hope for your life is that you behave well, and you believe all the correct things.
When we don’t know God’s best hope for our lives we tend to feel responsible for our own blessing, our own well-being, our own protection, our own advancement. Maybe without knowing it we take over God’s unique role – to provide and care for us.
It’s a God-size role that never fits any of us.
So, examine your stresses. Good chance they come from your attempts to be your own god. Next, examine the presence of joy and peace in your life. You can relax about a lot of stuff when you know the difference between God’s role and yours.
How do you think we can best relax in God’s care?
Good thoughts, Mark. We do often think God’s best means that we are behaving well. I taught at a Christian elementary school where I did the Bible Bowl on “Sports Day” one year. I was new and no one wanted to do anything but the outside games and skills with the students and I was thrilled to get to do the Bible Bowl, which involved getting to “quiz” every single student in the school on what they thought it meant to be saved. I was sad to find not ONE who honestly believed that it was ALL done through Christ. Works had sneaked into the message. All the other teachers assured me they talked often with their kids about that topic…but “getting right with god” had taken on all the connotations we communicate to our kids, not just what we SAY. They learn that we think it means “Go to church, don’t cuss, pray every day and read the Bible.” We think it more than we know.