Disobedient God: Trusting a God Who Goes Off ScriptНамуна

If you’re like me, whenever you watch a movie, you tend to identify with the character that is most like you.

Jesus, the master storyteller that He was, had this in mind when telling the three parables we find in Luke 15. In the midst of tax collectors and sinners, Jesus was telling these stories to the Pharisees who were critical of the company He kept. Three stories of lost things: a sheep, a coin, and a son.

The story of the son is the most interesting when you remember His audience. Why? Because it is actually a story of two brothers - and they were both lost. Jesus wanted the Pharisees to see that there’s more than one way to lose your way, and it’s possible to be right and still be wrong.

Take a moment to read the passage in Luke 15:11-32.

Both brothers were trying to perform their way into the good graces of the father, and they both were attempting to manipulate him in their own way.

The older son used his work and his righteousness to demand acceptance and celebration from the father. He’s never left. He’s never ripped off his dad.

And he never gets a party.

The younger son came back the same way he left: trying to hustle. He was convinced he needed to perform the role of a servant to cut a deal with his dad. He’s done so much wrong for so long, he can’t imagine himself being accepted back to the station he had before he ran away.

So the younger son was trying to hustle, and the older brother was trying to perform. These are two responses that all of us are in danger of having. When God doesn’t do what we want or what we ask, we can take it as a sign that we just need to do better or try harder. Thinking we need to pick up the slack of a Disobedient God. This is our way to get the results we’ve been asking for - to make it happen ourselves.

The dangerous thing about those of us who want to perform or hustle our way into getting what we want, is that we can get really good at it.

We can think, “If I just do good, then God is going to be good.”

You prayed every day this week.

You did your devotions.

You were generous.

You know the right things to do, but your heart is driven by the score.

Why do this? Well, because one day you plan on comparing your score to God’s score and say, “God, I’m ready to cash in all of this righteousness I've cultivated.”

That’s when you’re going to realize your performance was futile.

Because, just as the father in Luke 15 says, so does God: All I have is yours. The older son could have just asked for a party. He could have been celebrated every day if he’d genuinely sought out the father. The younger son, seeing only the possibility of being accepted as a servant needed to only accept the gift of sonhood from the father.

The Gospel tells us that we don’t have to find our worth in our work. We find our worth in His work. The Gospel isn’t an invitation to work harder; it is an invitation to rest harder in who God is and what He’s already accomplished.

So, what do you do with a Disobedient God who goes off-script?

You rest in Him.

Take a moment to talk to God as the good Father who has already accepted you. What have you told yourself you’ve needed to do to get what you need? You don’t need to perform your way into His love. It is ready and available to you right now.