I Need to be Rescued from Me!

In 1967, one of the covers of Time Magazine had a title, Is God Dead? How would you answer that question? I was wondering do you think much about God? Do you think about life after death? Do you think God cares about you —even to the point of desiring a relationship with you? Or do you think God is some sort of cosmic killjoy who got the universe going, gave mankind some rules which no one can fully keep —and then walked away from it all?

People sometimes ask, “Do you believe in God?” Your beliefs are your choice. I personally believe in the God of the Bible. I’m a Christ follower and I’m not ashamed to proclaim it. It seems to me that for those that say they “believe in God,” the important question should be, “What are you doing about it?” After all, the Bible teaches that Satan “believes in God” but he doesn’t choose to submit to God’s authority.

A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.” Wow, now that’s a thought-provoking question worthy of some reflection.

I feel sad for those men who basically have the Ten Commandments come to mind when they think of God. As one who has personally been rescued by God’s grace, and experienced his forgiveness and his direction in my life, I cherish my relationship with him and I enjoy getting to know him more and more.

This is such a big subject that discussing it is akin to taking a sip out of a fire hydrant. But I offer this “sip” about one aspect of it. The following is a page from my favorite daily devotional, New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp:

Obedience is freedom. Better to follow the Master’s plan than to do what you weren’t wired to do —master yourself.

It is true that the thing you and I most need to be rescued from is us! The greatest danger that we face is the danger that we are to ourselves. Who we think we are is a delusion and what we tend to want is a disaster. Put together, they lead to only one place —death.

If you’re a parent, you see it in your children. It didn’t take long for you to realize that you are parenting a little self-sovereign, who thinks at the deepest level that he needs no authority in his life but himself. Even if he cannot yet walk or speak, he rejects your wisdom and rebels against your authority. He has no idea what is good or bad to eat, but he fights your every effort to put into his mouth something that he has decided he doesn’t want. As he grows, he has little ability to comprehend the danger of the electric wall outlet, but he tries to stick his fingers in it precisely because you have instructed him not to. He wants to exercise complete control over his sleep, diet and activities. He believes it is his right to rule his life, so he fights your attempts to bring him under submission to your loving authority.

Not only does your little one resist your attempts to bring him under your authority, he tries to exercise authority over you. He is quick to tell you what to do and doesn’t fail to let you know when you have done something he does not like. He celebrates you when you submit to his desires and finds ways to punish you when you fail to submit to his demands.

Now, here’s what you have to understand: when you’re at the end of a very long parenting day, when your children seemed to conspire together to be particularly rebellious, and you’re sitting on your bed exhausted and frustrated, you need to remember that you are more like your children than unlike them. We all want to rule our worlds. Each of us has times when we see authority as something that ends freedom rather than gives it. Each of us wants God to sign the bottom of our personal wish list, and if he does, we celebrate his goodness. But if he doesn’t, we begin to wonder if it’s worth following him at all. Like our children, each of us has a quest to be and to do what we were not designed by our Creator to be or to do.

So grace comes to decimate our delusions of self-sufficiency. Grace works to destroy our hope for autonomy. Grace helps to make us reach out for what we really need and submit to the wisdom of the Giver. Yes, it’s true, grace rescues us from us.

Your thoughts…