Competition or Convergence

Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'? "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken)... (John 10:34-35)

When one begins to sense the implications of what Jesus is saying here about our proper role as gods in relationship with each other connected with Him, all sorts of peripheral things suddenly start to make more sense. (If you are a little confused about this idea, take time to read the last post and the related ones connected with it.) I feel it is important that I start paying attention to what the Spirit is revealing about this subject considering that Jesus made one of His most emphatic declarations regarding this fact saying concerning it, “the Scripture cannot be broken”.

The problem of course comes in when sin skewed the original design and function of our lives and our relationships. Rather than competing to see how much we can bless each other like those in heaven do, encouraging each other and allowing our lives to be sources of life-giving service to others, we have been predisposed by sin to selfishness which reverses the order of God's creation in our lives and now live grasping for everything we can get for ourselves, often at the expense of others. Thus life becomes an ever-intensifying competition for shrinking resources. This is the very basis for Satan's invention about our origins: the evolutionary theory. In this model based on the selfishness of the human heart, people assume that life is all about survival of the fittest. And since sin has affected all of creation here on earth it appears that there is much evidence to support this theory.

Yet God never intended for His creatures to live selfishly or to clamor and fight over resources. He designed us to live as benefactors to all around us, receiving to give to others rather than seeking how much we can take or hoard for our own pleasure. Yet the very concept of selfless living seems so foreign and incompatible with our natural instincts that we often question its validity or even its viability. It seems too strange to be real, and yet it must be embraced and experienced if we truly want to live in the upside-down kingdom that Jesus came to establish.

In God's way of relating, in God's government, all live to bless to others. Nature was designed this way and the underlying pattern can still be seen in many of the cycles of nature in spite of the severe damage sin has caused. Man is the glaring exception to this principle of serving, for humans are the ones so infected with the selfishness of sin that they tend to exploit rather than nurture. But in God's system of sharing life, all things and all creatures live and have their proper place in a great circuit of life and love that all originates and ultimately returns to Him. As we live in harmony with these eternal principles of life, we find ourselves the recipients of blessing from many around us and in turn joyfully pass on the blessings that come to us to benefit many others. Life becomes a great convergence of blessing for all involved rather than a competition against others where my gain is someone else's loss.

The key for the success of God's system of government is an ever-present cognizance and submission to the Father's sovereignty and authority and complete trust in His goodness. When all creation lives in joyful trust in the Father as the original source of all good things, then harmony is realized and we begin to appreciate the true joy of perfection and thriving the way God designed intended. We begin to experience what God declared at the end of creation week when He said that it was all 'very good'. Creation as it came from the hand of God was never intended to be a competition for resources or love or provisions; it was designed to be a convergence of life-giving resources that were ever increasing that in turn would result in ever-increasing exclamations of praise and gratitude to the Creator who exhibits such amazing love and goodness and graciousness through His creatures.

How does this relate to me today? I look at my own attitudes, my selfish motives and the damage that I daily inflict on those around me because of faults and confusion in my life, and I cry out for much more grace, for healing, for a totally new perspective and a new heart. I see more and more clearly how narrow my views of life really are, how limited is my awareness of the goodness of God, how lacking my heart is in gratitude and appreciation, and I am appalled at my own deeply entrenched selfishness. But I have hope, not because I have any ability to change my own heart but because God has the ability and is eager to fulfill His promises in me as I allow Him access through my spirit. As I read the last half of Ezekiel 36 this morning with my daughter, my heart was again deeply moved by how clearly God promises that He is going to give me a new heart and remove my heart of stone. And all that He describes there He emphatically declares He will do for His reputation's sake, not for my benefit.

That may sound at first like God is a selfish person Himself. But as the truth becomes more clear I remember that the problem of sin is skewing all of my perceptions about reality and often prevents me from appreciating what God needs to do. Until His reputation is salvaged nothing He has designed in all of creation is truly safe from harm. For me to have hope of living in joy and fellowship and life for eternity with the saved as well as to enjoy close intimacy with God, His reputation – what everyone thinks about Him – must be fully repaired. Only when all His creatures finally come to realize His total trustworthiness and freely return all praise and glory to the origin of life will it be safe for Him to fully restore us into close intimacy with Himself.

What will I choose today? Am I going to allow myself to continue playing the games of competition for resources that infects so many of my relationships with others? Or am I willing to be transformed by the renewing of my mind and choose to begin living in proper orientation within the great convergence of blessings and provisions that God designs for me to pass along to others?

Father, keep changing me. Change the way I think, the way I perceive, the way I react and especially the way I think and feel about You. Keep revealing Your heart, Your goodness, the real truth about what You are like to my mind and my heart. Let me see Your glory much more clearly so that what I reflect to others under pressure will be Your character rather than my selfishness. Do this for Your name's sake just as You promised to do. Thank-you.