“Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.” Jeremiah 16:13

Cheap Thrill, or God’s Will?

Several times in scripture, God’s people either whine about their situations, or they outright rebel against His will. In return for this nonstop onslaught of ingratitude, God removes His favor from His people.

How sad it is to be granted your prayers, only to find that God will not favor you in that place. Several real-life situations illustrating this come to mind. I have a friend who tried out for a certain part in a play but won a smaller, different role instead. When I was in junior high, I tried out for a Christian band but didn’t make it, although my best friend did. At about the same age, several friends won spots on the school drill team, and I did not. The things I really wanted were being denied me.

As a mature Christian, now I see that God knows what is good for me. I know that He will withhold what will harm me—and only He, in His wisdom and knowledge of the future, knows what that is.

Do I want certain things so badly that I will whine and finagle my own way, even at the risk of removing myself from God’s favor? If I am bent on living according to my own desires—if I am stubbornly following the dictates and imagination of my heart—God may well give me my own way. Jeremiah 16:12 gives an example of how God views this rebellion: “And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.”

In His loving kindness, I will eventually hear Him say, “How’s that working for you?” He will let me have my way for a time, and then draw me back to Himself. My assurance is found in Philippians 1:6: “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (HCSB).

My husband and I went to a certain restaurant for dinner last week. It was a small, uncarpeted room in which echoes were unimaginably loud. There was only one family—a very pregnant mom and her three daughters—sitting at a table when we arrived. The littlest daughter, about three years old, was sitting quietly in her chair with her eyes and fingers glued to a game on her mom’s cell phone. As their dinner arrived, the little one never looked up from the phone. For a few minutes the rest of them were eating peacefully, but the little girl refused to acknowledge her food. The mother eventually pried the phone out of her hands, and loud crying commenced–ear-splitting, echo-producing, non-stop screeching from a very angry three-year-old child about six feet away from us. The mom ignored the crying (appropriately not giving her back the game to appease her), but eventually it was apparent that my husband and I were not going to be able to enjoy our meal if it continued, nor could we have any conversation at all.

This tiny child had crossed a line. She had removed herself from her mother’s favor (and ours, I might add). Mom’s wisdom called for the eating of dinner, not the playing of games. It wasn’t until she had cried herself out that she settled down into eating and, thus, back into her mother’s favor. (By then we had removed ourselves to an outdoor dining experience.)

Strictly applying our Scriptures to this situation, where God allows what people cry for, with the resulting consequences, the mother might have chosen to give the game back (thus fueling the daughter’s rebellion), but the consequences would have been that the girl would have missed dinner. This is you and I, when we don’t care what is best, only what seems good at the moment.

Accepting the wise counsel of our Father brings His favor. He cannot and will not bless us when we walk the wrong way.

Father, lead us in the way we should go. We never want to remove ourselves from Your favor. We know there is a way that seems right to us, but it is far removed from Your will. Teach us, Lord. Amen.