In love with the loaves and fishes

The attitude of not deserving anything from God, of owing everything to the Lord, of being totally subject to the Lord is absolutely key in this time of history and as of a new style of preaching that we see so much in the Church at this time, where people are taught that God exists to please us, to advance our interests, to give us the best life possible. It's like this idea that we come to church for the benefits that God can give us; We come for God to heal us, prosper us, bless us in our marriage, to do something good for us. Get us a good husband, a good wife, give us a good job, and unfortunately many Pastors feel like they have to preach this message of the loaves and fishes for people to come to Church, and if we preach to them the most serious parts of the Christian life are not going to attend our services.

When I speak of the loaves and fishes I remember that moment when the Lord Jesus Christ tells the crowd: "You are looking for me because of the loaves and fishes, not because I am the Son of God." The Lord was offended that the crowd was looking for Him because He had multiplied the loaves and fishes on one occasion, and His reputation had spread as a man who fed people and that is why people came, not because They were interested in the message that He had to give or because they knew that He was the Son of God and that they had to serve Him, and give their lives to Him, but it was rather out of selfishness, not out of love for God Himself.

And unfortunately many people today come to the Church looking for profit, for God to do something, for God to give them something in exchange for the fact that they give them money or that they go to Church, or that they do this, or that. other. And so many times what we do is promote that superficial and selfish and carnal mentality in people that if God does something that we did not like, then we withdraw from the Church.

If we go through a time of trial that God many times wants to use to strengthen us or form the image of Christ in our lives, we immediately set foot and leave the Church, or if a message of holiness is preached, of service to the Lord without waiting. nothing, of generosity towards others, of a character formation like the character of Christ people often say: you know what? I am going to find a Church where I am told about prosperity, blessing, material growth, an attitude of tranquility and peace in my life where everything is going well for me, and then we do a bad service to people by promoting that type of attitude.

And the Lord was always very realistic in the way He preached His message, and made it clear to people that they should not only seek God for good things, in the superficial sense of the word, but because God many times, in His lordship and His sovereignty, He wanted to do other things in the lives of His children, and sometimes they would have to go through trials and sufferings, and that too would be part of the Will of God.

The Bible promotes exactly an attitude contrary to that attitude of easy Gospel, of the Gospel of prosperity without the other elements of the cross or of the sometimes arduous formation of the Christian. The fundamental attitude of the believer, the starting point of the mature believer is one that: we do not deserve anything, we have all offended God and we are sinners. We don't really deserve to even be saved.

In the attitude that God in His mercy and His incomprehensible grace rescued us and saved us, and that now, as a consequence of that undeserved salvation, we owe everything to God and we must serve Him with all our hearts, live totally grateful before God giving it to Him. everything and knowing that we deserve nothing in return, except to serve him in whatever he asks of us.

The fundamental attitude of the believer should be one that we live for God, to serve Him, to advance the interests of His Kingdom. We do not live by ourselves but we are His, as that servant in the parable does not belong to himself and has to do everything that his master wants, we must also cultivate that attitude of total surrender and of not having any right to the greatness of God, and that we have to serve Him in everything He asks of us, and that our whole life must be given to His Will. The fact that God has the right to do with us what He wants.

There has to be a total breaking of pride, of demands before God, of independence. Our time, our money, our family, our strength, our bodies, our future, everything is under the lordship of God and He has the right to do whatever He wants of us, and yet, having given it to Him and having done everything for Lord, we will not have done enough compared to all that He has already given for us, having given His only begotten Son so that we may be saved through His death.

May God bless you and may that attitude of total surrender to God and His Will, of being slaves and servants of the Lord, be the hallmark of our Christian life. Until our next meditation.