Are you working for God or with him?

“When we work for God instead of with God, we lose sight of God’s character, nature and perspective. Our motives become distorted and mixed. We become religious (serve God our way instead of His), legalistic (by the parameters and restrictions of man), judgmental (critical of all outside our understanding) and proud of our own accomplishments (‘look how hard I have worked’).” Lisa Bevere, Discover Your Inner Beauty, 62

Have you been there? I have. Maybe I can help you recognize it.

Are you often stressed out because you can’t get everything done? Are you trying to save the world? “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Read Matthew 19:23-30

Do you see people as the battle and obstacles to your efforts? Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Read Ephesians 6:10-18

Is God’s saying “no” more than “go”? Read James 4:2-4

I’ve been in church all my life. I have been active and growing with Christ for over 16 years. My husband and I have attended and been leaders in a variety of church affiliations. But it wasn’t until seven years ago when we began attending a seeker driven (that differs from seeker sensitive) church that I realized how I had been trying to work for God rather than working with him.

Seeker driven churches are not trying to make truth comfortable. They simply bring up questions that many traditional churches have quit asking.

It was in this setting that I looked around me and realized that regardless of where any of us are in our relationship with Christ, we all desire the same thing. And that is to understand our role in this world – we are all seeking truth.

I miss the conversations of the seeker driven church. It seems that anyone I talked to – believer or not-yet-believer – we asked questions of ourselves and of God. We were always open to learning something far outside the box of man’s traditional ideas of who God is and our relationship to him. In the seeker driven church I attended, there was always a sense of experiencing God in unexpected ways.

Ok, maybe I’m “painting pictures of Egypt” (great lyrics of Sara Groves). Maybe I’m only remembering what I want and leaving out what God wants to show me where I am today. Confession: it’s not what was lacking then, it’s what I’m lacking now – community.

Here’s the point I’m wandering around: when we live as seekers of God instead of servers for God, we fall in love with Christ instead of ourselves.

So, are you seeking God or are you seeking accomplishments? Do you want to impress God with what you do for him or do you want to walk hand in hand along a sunny beach with Him – listening to his dreams for your life together?

Be his Bride and enjoy the romance.