I recently saw a quote by a popular evangelical figure that read, “God moves when people want God.” That kind of idea gets many quick “Amens!” from Christians today. The idea is that if we want God to move, we need to want God. If we want God to move, we need to…fill in the blank.
That is the dominating message of the church in America today. If you want God to move, act, be present, then you need to…fill in the blank. This message is usually taught to spur people on towards good works of some kind. “Don’t expect God to show up, move, and act unless you…”
Now, the Bible says things like, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” This is super encouraging. We often think if we seek to draw near to God He might not ever draw near to us but the book of James is there correcting that mindset, holding out an incredible reality that if we want to be near to God and draw near to Him, he will draw near to us. Amazing!
However, the dominating message of the Bible is not, “God moves when people want God”, rather, the dominating message is, “If you want God, it is because God is moving in you.” For example, in the book of Judges you will read that the people of God cried out in their suffering after they forsake God. Then God moves and shows up and delivers them. We assume they are crying out to God in repentance. In actuality on at least one occasion there is no reason to believe God’s people were even crying out to Him. They were just in agony, crying out. But God shows up nonetheless to deliver them. In other words, God moved before they even wanted Him.
Isn’t that the story of your salvation as a Christian? Before you wanted Him, thought of Him, or sought Him, He moved. But when it comes to the Christian life we often think things have changed. Now that you’re a Christian, we hear, He will only move when you…fill in the blank. He won’t move until you appropriately want Him, seek Him, pray enough, are faithful enough, and on we go. It’s all up to you now, all the time.
But that just isn’t the way of God. Yes, it is true if we draw near to Him He will draw near to us. It is true if we pray, He answer. But it’s also true that God draws near to us, leads us, moves in and around us, and acts on our behalf in countless ways that are not direct responses to us doing anything. And that’s because God is a God of…grace.
This means you don’t have to live your Christian life only expecting God to be God if you…fill in the blank. You can actually rest and rely on the grace-based movement of God. Practically, this looks like having peace about something in your life even though you know in hindsight that you haven’t prayed about it enough. It means having peace that God is still with you even when you haven’t wanted Him enough. It means having peace that God is still orchestrating your life for His purposes even though you have made countless bonehead decisions.
Now that you’re a Christian, remember, God is still gracious. He is still the God of all grace. It’s not all riding on your shoulders now. Rest knowing that for every 1 time He draws near because you drew near, He has drawn near without you asking 100 times. And knowing that will actually make you want Him more.
