Playing Chicken With God

In my Sunday School class this morning we were learning about the Lord's Prayer and when I got to this part a thought crossed my mind:

Matthew 6:9-10 (New International Version)
"This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

I zeroed in on the your will be done part, and I thought of how we play chicken with God.

You remember that game when you were teenagers don't you? Two cars heading toward one another at a high rate of speed on the same side of the road. The one who swerved out of the way of the other car first was labeled "chicken" and the other would be the winner. Of course, no one wanted to be the "chicken" so you would wait until the last moment to swerve. I don't know where to get statistics on this game, but I wonder how many kids were injured or killed playing this game.

I think a better name for the game would be called "stupid".

And yet.....

We do the same thing with God.

Two wills are traveling down the road of life heading toward each other.

One is the will of God...the other is my will (or your will).

I'm heading for a collision unless I swerve out of the way and give the will of God the right of way.

But I'm not about to be called a chicken.

I'm not about to give up my will...after all it's MY WILL!

The problem is that if I don't give it up and give God the right of way, we will crash, and God will walk away from the crash without a scratch, while I'm liable to be maimed or crippled for life! What is up with that? Why am I so stubborn?

You see, when it comes to playing chicken with God we will always lose no matter what. God is not going to change. He is not going to let us go headlong on our own path without running into us, and He will always come out of the crash in better shape than we will.

Sometimes I will even think I am doing the will of God, and then crash! It's like His car had a cloaking device (if you don't know what that is, ask someone who watches Star Trek), and wham! There I am, a casualty of another game of chicken with God.

So what do I do. The answer is really quite simple.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

My mind needs to be renewed. And the only way it can be renewed is by reading and studying the word of God. There's no shortcuts. No cliff's notes. No readers digest version. No comic book version (well actually, my son has a comic book version of the Bible....but you really need more than that).

So I encourage you to read your Bible. Study your Bible. Call your pastor with the questions....because if you read it you will have questions.

And the next time you feel tempted to play chicken with God, you'll know it's a losing game, and you'll give up before the game even begins.

Besides, life opposing God is not a game after all, it is serious business.

Ok, so there's that.
Pastor Dave