Skip to main content

Loyalty to God is not just brand buy in.


Let me start with a quote: 
"...without us knowing it, the world has shifted from a society of long-term relationships to a society of transactional relationships..."1
It’s an interesting thought isn’t it? When we look at how we interact with each other on a day to day basis our relationships are very much transactional in nature. (I am speaking in general here.)
A relationship matters to us only because we get something out of the transaction. There is no such thing as long haul.2 If we look at how some social media platforms work then we can validate this idea can’t we?
And yet, what if we apply this to our relationship with God? How does that look?
Do we view this relationship like our brand loyalty, is it based purely on the transaction? We are in it only so long as we are happy with the product?
Can we even call it a “relationship” if it’s about gratification only of what we want?
What about what God wants?
Take a moment and turn to Hosea chapter 6 verse 6.
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
If what we are offering to God is not based on a deep need in our hearts for ongoing relationship, that steadfast love, expressed in the Hebrew word ‘hesed,’
then we have something that is shallow.
It is the same thought spoken of in Jeremiah 17:8. “His is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
If we have our roots buried deep in Christ, if our all in all is built on an abiding, faithful relationship with Him, we are fulfilled, and our loyalty is strong.
It becomes not about us, and our transactional sense of need, but our deeper spiritual economy.
If our relationship with God is two way, and focused on Him rather than us, then we will be strong, and that strength, and stability will show in all those other relationships that make our lives rich.
Amen.  

  

1.     1.    Luongo, Peter. http://petespeaks.com/does-loyalty-still-matter/ Accessed 1/6/2019
2.     2.    If you have any doubt about this think about football teams. And be honest here. Yes, we support our team, but what happens when they aren’t doing very well. Are there not thoughts of abandoning them and jumping on another band wagon until such time as they start performing to the requisite level? When that happens it’s as if we never left. Oh, yes, we say, I have always been a supporter.

Popular posts from this blog

When life gives you lemons, think about the Cross

  Have you ever had one of those times when you just want to stand there and scream, not out of anger but out of sheer frustration? Sometimes when you have doubts that layer one on top of the other things start looking a lot like a Sara Lee pastry. What then? That old quip, “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” springs quickly to mind, but that isn’t really helpful is it? How can I make lemonade out of doubts? I can sit in the sun and sip that lemonade and still feel troubled by the things around me, by the grumps I have with my circumstances. So what do you do about doubt? The opening line to the hymn looms out of the shadows: “When my love to Christ grows weak, When for deeper faith I seek, Then in thought I go to thee, Garden of Gethsemane.” To think on this, I am reminded how small I am. How much tension, anxiety, even terror Our Lord must have felt while He prayed in the Garden. O, Father, take this cup from me, but only if it is Your will. He walked ahead, firm in His re...
Read more

Jesus, meek and mild

One of the things we get caught up on as Christian's is the word 'meek.' Somehow this word has come to mean wimpy, rather than just mild or gentle.  What was the original meaning? The word πραυς 'praus' is difficult to translate. Being meek does not mean being 'weak.' If we study Jesus as He is presented in the Gospel's we find He is anything but wishy washy. Here is a man who is firm and decisive in His actions. There is so much restrained strength in Him. And that's what meek means.  Meek is God's Strength, ALL of His strength under control in Christ.  We are limited in English as we do not have a word that encompasses this blend of both gentleness and strength.  Jesus is God's strength under control; it is now out own strength we are looking to. It is trust in God's goodness and control over any given situation, rather than self assertion or self reliance, is it Christ reliance. It is a deep knowledge that God's goodness is in acti...
Read more

Every thought is born of faith.

One of the things we do a lot of everyday, and we probably don't acknowledge it much, is thinking. Excuse my pun, but we don't think about the act or fact of thinking. Well, not very often, and usually only in passing. Most times it happens when someone asks "What do you think about that?" or "What are your thoughts on this?" But what is a thought? And for that matter what is thinking? A thought it seems is indeed one of those little pole vaulting zaps of electro-chemical energy, hopping from synapse to synapse.     Just as your heart beats and you lungs breath your brain thinks. That's what it's made to do. 100 billion nerve cells. All working towards the functioning of your body, and the 80,000 thoughts you have each and every day. I'm not sure I'm conscious of having that many, I mean, 80,000 is a lot (and who figures this stuff out? How on earth do you put a figure on that? Or is it one of those informed guestimates you are often given w...
Read more