David Nasser reveals it is all too common for us to exchange loving God for loving His blessings.

As we have talked about before. Instead of “I want God, period.” We say with our actions, “I want God and comfort (or to keep my friends, or a wrong relationship, or success, or status, etc)”.

Our Wednesday night Bible study was just talking about this passage in Romans 1:

“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…” (Romans 1:25 NIV).

This passage is aimed at unbelievers, but doesn’t that sound like what we do sometimes after we come to know Jesus?

We see the glory of God and the depths of love revealed to us by Jesus’ sacrifice, we believe it and cling to it for a time and then our affections become diluted. 

We begin to seek the peace offered by Jesus more than Jesus.

We begin to seek wealth now and when we think of Heaven we merely think of streets of gold and unlimited material things… but not the true prize of Heaven which is the direct presence and glory of God Himself.

We “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:23)

How can we know if this has happened to us?

David Nasser gives us four questions that will give you a good idea of where your affections are:

“1. What do you pray about?”

Are your prayers full of requests for God to be glorified and full of gratitude for what He has already done? Or, is it exclusively asking for more? It is not wrong to ask for things in prayer, but are you like a friend that only shows up when they need something? I’m sure that may sting a bit to realize we are treating God this way because we have probably vowed at one point to not be that sort of friend to others.

“2. How do we respond when someone has more than we do?”

Are you full of jealousy when others receive more? Perhaps you have come to believe that you have not received enough from God already. Perhaps the relationship He secured for us is no longer “enough” for you.

“3. Do we get angry when God doesn’t give us what we want?”

“4. Do we feel sorry for ourselves when God doesn’t come through the way we wanted?”

If you are living a “God and comfort” lifestyle this will certainly come up. The best response to disappointment is to ask, “Lord, what do you want to teach me from this?”

This is tricky sometimes because the change can be so subtle. 

It takes wisdom from God to see our motivations clearly.

Nasser made a good point that I have to quote,

“Believers who have walked with God for a while face another, more subtle “God-and” problem. They sometimes confuse devotion to Christ with Christian disciplines of prayer, Bible study, serving, and giving. Those are meant to open our eyes and draw us close to Christ Himself, not become a substitute for Him. Prayer doesn’t save us. Bible study is not our Lord. Serving and giving don’t fill the deepest holes in our hearts. Christ does. These activities take on their direction and meaning if and only if, they are focused on knowing and loving Jesus.” (Nasser, A Call to Die: Day 19)

So what do we do?

Sit, reflect, ask for wisdom from God, and identify the things diluting our devotion to knowing and glorifying God. Then, rip those things out of your life with a plan. If that plan fails, re-evaluate, pray for more strength, for God to open your eyes to His glory, and to increase your love for Him, and try again.