What God Wants Most of All for You (5)

To begin with…
You’re back. OK, great.

I assume that means you’re at least interested in learning something more about God’s great expectations – what God, the true God, Whom you know in your heart – wants most of all for you.

Let me ask you first: What are you thinking about this? As you see it, where God’s great expectations begin? What, as you see it, does God want most of all for you?

If you’re like many people, the first thing that comes to mind is, “God wants me to be good.”

Do you notice how you say that with a bit of disparagement in your voice?

Many people are of the opinion that God’s primary interest in them is as moral beings. And, as they see it, in God’s view, they don’t measure up, and never will. God wants to tell us how we ought to act, what we should do and should not do. As these folks see Him, God is all “do’s and don’ts.” And we’re always on the wrong side of His approval.

What this implies for many people is that God doesn’t like you the way you are, that He does not approve of your behavior, that He stands in judgment over you, like some kind of harsh parent or angry teacher you can never please, no matter how hard you try. He wants you to do what He wants, not what you want. He wants to rob you of your freedom and fun, all in the name of being “good.”

God, in other words, is a kind of cosmic killjoy.

Besides, it’s possible that God’s idea of “good” might not coincide with that voice in your head – your mind/god – which insists it knows what’s best for your “good.”

Tension in your soul?
But a tension growls in your soul – a conflict stirs between some “big” idea of “good” and what your mind/god wants you to think is “good.”

Maybe you’ve even experienced something of this struggle in your soul? You have a very strong feeling about things like good and evil and right and wrong. That feeling tends to cohere with “what most people think” or “what you’ve always known.” You have a sense of what you should do in any particular situation.

Or used to, at least.

Anyway, when push comes to shove and the opportunity for doing the right thing presents itself, you choose to do something else. I don’t know, cheat on your taxes? Tell a “little” lie? Flirt where you shouldn’t? Fudge the speed limit? Drink too much?

Whatever. You have a sense of what the right thing is to do, what actually is “good.” But, at the crucial moment, you choose to do something else.

The reason you do this is clear enough. At the moment, you decide that this is the “good” thing for you, regardless of whether or not it’s what you sense you ought to do. And you want to do the “good” thing because doing “good” means being “good” and being “good” consistently over time adds up to the “good life” that your mind/god has outlined for you.

So, why do you feel guilty about this “good” choice you’ve made?

And why, again and again, do you make that same choice?

Have you noticed that, the more you deny that deep inner voice advising you concerning what is truly good, and do something which for moment seems “good”, that inner voice becomes easier to deny the next time around? And the “guilt” seems easier to bear? Or deny? Or ignore?

Yeah.

God and good
Well let me say that, in one sense at least, God does want you to be good – just like you do. You want to be good, to “have a good time,” and God wants that for you, too. You’re right about this. God wants you to be good.

But, as you’ve probably already surmised, His idea of “good” may be at variance with yours at times. But does that mean that He’s wrong and you’re right, just because your (shape-shifting, finite) mind/god insists it is so?

Think about that for a moment. If God really is Who you know (but deny) Him to be, isn’t it possible that His understanding of “good” is, well, more reliable than yours?

You say, “Can’t be.” But how do you know? Do you know everything there is to know about good and evil? Have you ever had something you thought at the moment would be “good” for you blow up in your face? Is it possible, in other words, you might still have a thing or two to learn about “good” and “what’s good for you”?

And is it possible that the true God might know better than your mind/god about such matters?

Yes, God wants you to be good, and God’s idea of good, frankly, is better than any of ours, or all of ours put together.

But being good, as important as that is, is not what God wants most of all for you.

Do you operate on some settled standards of “good” in making your choices and decisions? Or do you just “wing it” at the moment? Would you be willing to insist that your idea of “good” is what everyone should embrace? Why or why not?

T. M. Moore
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.