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God
always comes down. If there is anything to
understand
about the Lutheran flavor of the Christian faith it is this: God always
comes down.
Never does anyone in creation
have to climb their way up to find God.
God always comes down.
Even with this truth ringing through the air, many
people are convinced that there is something they must do in order
to gain God’s favor. People make
deals with God such as: “God, if you give me a little money to get me by, I
will go to church more or help someone else who is struggling.” Such a deal presumes that something must
be done in order to gain God’s attention and help
(even if
the deal is to be satisfied later.)
Certain people work hard doing good for others, trying
to work their way up into God’s good graces, believing that their good
deeds will “pay off” in the end. Of
course there is nothing wrong with helping others. God smiles every time someone acts out of
love and compassion for a hurting or needy person. But, the completion of those tasks does
not dictate God’s opinion of you.
The phrase, “God helps those who
help themselves” is a non-biblical phrase that many people use. The phrase implies that a person must
work their way up to God a little before God will come to the rescue. Some live their entire lives believing
this statement to be true. But what
happens when you find that life has dumped you somewhere you can’t climb
out of? Perhaps, alcohol has taken
hold of your life and you cannot stop drinking, no matter how much you try
to force yourself. Perhaps, you have
become so accustomed to lying that it has become second nature. Unable to catch yourself, you find no way
to train yourself out of it. Maybe
the world has just become so hectic and chaotic that the darkness has
surrounded you. Unable to motivate
your mind and body pull itself out of the dark hole, you stare up, trying
to see if there is any light beyond the darkness. “God helps those who help themselves” is
a statement that is found to be very dry when searching for thirst
quenching words of hope from the bottom of the hole.
Working your way up to God’s
level is an impossible task and it is unfortunate that so many people
believe they have to. Some
arrogantly proclaim that they have made it to the top with God. These people tend to act very religious
and seem on the outside to have everything together. But, the truth is that they don’t. How could a person claim that they have
made themselves worthy enough to stand next to God, the perfect source of
all goodness? An honest look at anyone’s
life will reveal wrongs committed, hurt people, and individuals whom were
forgotten and not taken care. No one
can climb their way up to God’s level.
Contrary to what many people believe, people do not worship Jesus
because they are great people with great lives. We do not have faith in ourselves. We will let ourselves and others down
sooner or later. Instead, we have
faith in God, and God will not let us down.
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“We do not have faith in ourselves…we have faith in God and
God will not let us down.”
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What inspires faith in people is
the revelation that God never forgets us.
Since we cannot make it up to God, God chooses to come down to
us. This is great news to those of
us stuck in the bottom of the hole.
We hear this truth speaking to us repeatedly throughout the
Bible. In Genesis we see that God
intentionally came down to create us.
You were intended to be. You
were given life purely as a gift.
You did not have to prove anything in order to have life.
Further, we read in the Bible that the Israelite people
were rescued from slavery in Egypt, not because they had
somehow proven themselves, but because God couldn’t stand by as they cried
out for help. Hearing their cry, God
came down and raised up Moses who would lead them away from Egypt.
We are certain that God is a God who comes down because
of what was seen in Jesus the Christ.
Jesus himself was God come down to all the people of the earth.
We do not have to climb up to God to touch the
almighty. In Jesus, God came down to
us, becoming fully human so that we might have a teacher, friend, and
savior. Jesus served those who could
not serve themselves, healed those who could not heal themselves, defended
sinners who could not defend themselves, and died to rescue a creation that
could not be perfect enough to climb up to God.
If Jesus
could raise himself from the dead, then he could also raise his people up
from death. Whether we feel dead to
God because our lives are not even close to being full of love and life, or
have actually died a bodily death, Jesus the Christ came down to reveal to
all that new life is possible.
Because Jesus the Christ came down to forgive us, we know that we
can begin our lives over again after sinning. We know that darkness and death will not
have the final word, light and new life will prevail. And, we know that God will not leave us
alone; God will come down when we cry out.
It is this truth that inspires faith in people worldwide.
God still comes down to us
today. Through the Holy Spirit
coming to us and working in us, we are given faith and courage in a world
that sometimes feels chaotic and uncertain.
God will continue to come down to us to inspire us, no matter the
hardships that lie ahead. In joy
over what God has done for us, we respond by worshiping God and following
in the loving footsteps of Christ, who loved all people. We strive to bend down and serve others
in need because Christ first bent down to help us. We don’t do it to prove anything to God
or others. We do it because we are
God’s people and God’s people strive to do what God did for us.
This article was written by Pastor
Jira Albers and inspired by Kelly A.
Fryer from her book, Reclaiming the '' L'' Word: Renewing the Church from
Its Lutheran Core.
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