What Can God do for Me?

In his 1961 presidential inauguration address, John Kennedy made a pointed statement. He told his fellow Americans; "Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather ask, what can you do for your country." This is a statement that many Christians should look in the mirror and ask of themselves regarding God today. To paraphrase, "Let me not ask what God can do for me, but rather, what can I do for God."

We live in an age where church seems far to focused on what God can do for us, and not nearly enough on what we should be doing for God. Christianity has become "me" centered instead of God centered. After years of a man-centered message from far to many pulpits which has focused on the felt needs of the congregation instead of the true gospel message of lostness, repentance and the forgiveness of sin, Christianity is at a stage where it is a "mile wide and an inch deep" to quote many old pastors.

After years of telling people God wants them to be rich, successful, comfortable and many other self centered things, many who call themselves Christians have no sense of what God is really about. God has not promised us riches, but rather has commanded us to "deny" ourselves. He has not called us to be successful, but rather to be faithful. He has not called us to a comfort zone, but to a life of sacrifice, persecution and "hatred" from the world. Problem is, you preach the true gospel, and carnal people will run for the hills. Far to may churches and pastors are concerned about keeping the crowd than teaching the truth. As a result today knowledge of the bible is at an all time low, and true disciples of Christ are as rare as snow in South Carolina in July.

You see, one cannot be a disciple of Christ unless we are willing to sacrifice our wants for His. The call to the disciple is to walk away from our wants, deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him. If we are going to follow Jesus, we must expect to be treated as Jesus, to suffer as Jesus, to walk and to live as Jesus did. That is not a popular message, and most certainly will not please carnal people focused on themselves instead of God. But let us remember Jesus, who left the riches and glory of heaven to become poor here on earth. Who suffered scorn and shame, ridicule and persecution, torture and death, as His life was not about His will, but about His Father's will.

Instead of focusing on what God can do for us, let us rejoice in what He has already done for us. He has given His all in giving His Son as the atonement for our sin. He has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to resist temptation and live a holy life consecrated to Him. He has given us His word as our guide for living, with the life saving and life altering gospel message to show us the truth and lead us into fellowship with Him.

The damage that has been done to the church of Christ by man-centered churches and preachers is incalculable. The people led astray by this "me" message are more than we can count. Church and God are not about having our wants met, our desires fulfilled, but rather, how much He has already done for us, and how willing we are to surrender all and give for Him. If a person is truly a regenerate, blood bought, born again, believer in Jesus Christ, then our lives will not be about us, but about Him. God help the church, pastor and congregation that focuses more on me than God.