Sometimes I just want to yell: what the heck God!? What. The. Heck!?
The back story will help give some context. I haven’t quite lost my rocker yet. ;)
A few weeks ago I felt challenged by God to be more generous with my money. You know, making it rain with the dolla, dolla bills, ya’ll.
Immediately two things came to mind. $500 and a specific family I know. Easy enough. I blessed them with a $500 check. Not only that, but I decided to bump my tithe from 10% to 11%.
If you’re like me, you probably sub-consciously hope God’s going to return the favor somehow. In this case, he did with a not so subtle reminder.
I gave God $500, but I found out the following since:
- I owe an additional $3400 in taxes.
- The tenants at my rental property broke their lease, moved out and left me at least $1000 in repairs.
- Their security deposit would cover most of that, except they also didn’t pay their last month’s rent. Double whammy.
- I have an empty rental property which will cost $1000 for every month it’s vacant.
Plus $500 in exchange for minus $5400 and counting.
Boooooo hiss.
This is a classic example of an “unreturned favor” God. Don’t you know that!?
But here’s the deal.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Our obedience to God should not come with expectations.” quote=”Our obedience to God should not come with expectations.”]
Even if that comes at our own individual expense.
Last I checked, God hasn’t asked any of us to sacrifice our physical lives. So, really, it is no sacrifice at all. Especially if you consider this one moment/situation does not even come close to negating a lifetime of God’s faithfulness to me.
The next time God does not return a “favor,” consider all God’s done for you and then see if you’re still wanting that favor.
Photo courtesy of nathanmac87.
4 replies on “Unreturned Favors From God”
This post brought to mind the C.S. Lewis quote:
“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward … promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
So, maybe there is a distinction between expecting favors and expecting blessing/rewards. Another way to put it, there’s a difference between expecting temporal favors versus expecting eternal reward. We should expect things like joy, peace, etc. But often we aim too low, focused on the wrong gains to be had.
Can always count on you Adam to bring some depth and insight into the convo!
And C.S. Lewis. ;)
Am I understanding you correctly when I say we often miss the mark when we invest our lives and resources (time, money, talent) only looking at the earthly return and neglecting the eternal return?
So in my situation, I looked at my $500 investment losing me $5400 when in reality, there is probably a far greater eternal reward for it?
Well said.
Gotta love those moments when we unconsciously try to earn grace. I could write a book on it.
Luckily grace is not cashed in with our tithe checks. ;)