The weather here in Doylestown has been beautiful these past few days. So Tiffany and I have been taking advantage of these beautiful last few days of summer. We once again hit up the park for a walk and a bike ride. This time we headed over to George M. Bush Park in Buckingham to enjoy our evening constitutional. After our walk, the kids wanted to play in the massive sandbox, on the swings, and climb all over the playground equipment. This may just be the best part of the night–Tiffany and I get to sit on a bench and talk.
Well, about this time an ice cream truck pulls into the parking lot announcing its presence with bells and happy jingles. It was like somebody was shaking the treat box. All the puppies heads popped up and they went running to the source of the shaking. All that is except for two of them. Noah and Grace looked up to see what the commotion was and then set themselves back to playing in the sandbox.
I’d like to think that I have kids that are just so intent on their sandbox/playground time that they wouldn’t want to waste a moment of it on something as silly as an over-priced-four-wheeled-ice-cream-dispensing-handbell choir, but I’m not that naive. I think what really happened was my kids heard the droning of the bells, they looked at each other and silently shook their heads in agreement as to say, “Daddy is so cheap, don’t bother asking.”
In Genesis 3, right in the beginning of the temptation story, Satan asks Eve a similar question. He says, Is God so cheap that He told you that you couldn’t eat from any of the trees in the garden? I like the way that the message paraphrase puts it, “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?” What a question. Is God such a cheapskate that He won’t let you eat? Satan goes on to say, God just doesn’t want you to eat it because then you will be like Him. What Satan is saying is, God is selfishly withholding certain goodness or certain blessings from you. He just doesn’t want you to achieve the same status as Him, God is clearly not a good God like you thought He was, no is He?
The background to this story is that Satan is trying to do what He does best–deceive people and cause people to turn away from God and towards their own agenda. He uses a very simple tactic, challenge the goodness of God.
Have you ever thought to yourself any one of these things:
- God can’t possibly love me that much
- I know that’s a promise in the Bible, but it isn’t meant for me
- Does God really care
- I guess God has abandoned me
- God doesn’t want me to be happy
2 Comments
Wonderful analogy and story, Peter! And yes, I do struggle with this, but then I know those thoughts are from Satan, like you said. After I tell God what it is I see Him withholding from me, I always add on “But I trust you, God because I know you want what’s best for me and you can see the future and I can’t.” And our idea of happiness and God’s idea of joy are not one and the same. We can be joyful in spirit even if our world is falling apart(not easy to do!) because the goal of our life is NOT to be happy but for God to be glorified, right? God often wants us to learn some lesson from our waiting on Him, just like as parents we cannot and should not give them everything they beg for… we want them to learn lessons of patience, gratitude, hard work and it’s rewards, deferred gratification, God’s blessing and approval in their lives by not trying to satisfy every selfish or materialistic whim(in other words, His provision). So we, too, are to learn to become dependent on Him for everything!
Thanks Linda! Keep hanging in there. God is more than generous and has blessed us in every way. I know you know that. I couldn’t encourage you enough to fight the temptation of believing that God is not generous or that God is cheap when it comes to His love for you!