Can God Really Help You?

Two jobs I detest...unloading the dishwasher and unpacking the shopping. This morning we had our shopping delivered. Normally I have to speak very sternly to my two children to ask for help in unloading and putting away the groceries. Both are masters of delay and avoidance; the sudden urge for the toilet or the call of 'just a minute'. This usually leads to an undignified rant from me along the lines of 'I hardly ever ask you to do something and this food is for you too...etc.'

This morning was a little different, they were still in bed. Unable to face the hassle I unloaded the delivery onto the hall floor on my own, put away the cold food and then went upstairs to do a couple of things. Knowing I still had a lot of food to put away I headed back downstairs, but as I came to the top of the stairs and looked down, the groceries had all disappeared. What.....how was that possible? As I came to the bottom of the stairs my younger son appeared from the direction of the kitchen, still in his pyjamas, having taken all the groceries through. Was I surprised? You bet I was! However, I was also absolutely delighted. To quote a local expression ‘It warmed the cockles of my heart’. So much so, that I couldn’t wait to cook his breakfast (another task that I am usually not too keen on).

My son had put away the shopping to please me, not because he had to. The irony of the situation struck me; I was pleased because he had done it to please me and that led me to want to do something to please him. All the other times when I had to nag him to help, rather than being pleased, I was, if anything, resentful because of the effort to get him to help.

This caused me to reflect upon my relationship with God. How often did I feel that I had to do something for him because he was asking and he would look badly on me or make me feel guilty if I didn’t?  As a New Testament Christian I am not supposed to live under condemnation, but under grace. I am not supposed to do things out of a sense of duty; I am no longer under The Law. My heart should be to please God. I realised that if I did things simply to please God, then he would be delighted in me. Also surely, if in my delight I wanted to give back to my son, then wouldn’t my heavenly father want to give back to me?

The problem with the above is that often I don’t really feel like pleasing God. It does seem like a chore, as if I am under condemnation and not grace. Why is this? It’s because I have it the wrong way round. It doesn’t begin with me pleasing God and then he will be pleased with me. No, it begins with me realising how much God loves and delights in me. Out of that realisation arises the desire to please him.
God loves to delight in us.

      “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

      “For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.” Psalm 149:4

God is not up there in heaven looking down in judgement and condemnation, asking why I am not doing more things for him. No, that is the voice of Satan; he is the accuser, not God. God is a loving God, looking down at me and smiling in delight because he loves me. This same God blesses me, not because I deserve it, but because he loves me. He delights in me and he delights in blessing me. The more I dwell on this, the more my heart is warmed. A song of praise begins to arise in me......’how great thou art oh Lord, how great thou art’. That same heart asks the question; ‘Lord what can I do for you?’ The answer comes quickly; ‘I don’t want you to do for me, I want you to be in me, then I will be in you.’

We are human beings, not human doings. We are called to be who we are in Christ, then he will be in us and ‘he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world’.

As I think about his delight in me and I delight in him, strangely all seems well with the world.

And next time the shopping arrives.....? Well I’ve learnt a lesson in parenthood today. Yes I’ll ask for help, but no more accusations. I know God is with me, delighting in me as I go through my day and that’s enough.