Being for God or With God

Am I for God or with God? This troubling question was brought up via a book by Skye Jethani, “With: Reimagining the Way We Relate to God.” Skye breaks down our interaction with God into five possible interactions.

• Life under God – I am a sinner.
• Life over God – I am a manager.
• Life from God – I am a consumer.
• Life for God – I am a servant.
• Life with God –?

LIFE (BLANK) GOD

Life under God is a life full of accomplishing great things to please God. Is the quality of your salvation predicated on the quality of your gifts to God? It believes Devine Will is at the center of all things. Life over God is living by divine laws, rules, and rituals, each designed to qualify us for inclusion into God’s Kingdom. This interaction says that natural laws and principles are at the core. Life from God is believing that God exists to supply what we desire or need. It is about praying and receiving. Everything is of God; therefore, my life asks Him for things, and He decides what to give me. This interaction puts me at the center of everything. Life for God is about proclaiming His glory as the primary attribute to receiving grace. It has mission work and service at its core.

It is easy for me to visualize being in any one of these interactions. I am a sinner, there is no doubt. Rituals permeate my prayer life, bible reading, and churchgoing. I ask and want things from God and sometimes question my value based on the results. Obedience to His call is always at the forefront of my mind. I have been convinced over time that it is a form of worship to use God’s gift to me for His kingdom.

We express faith in Christ so God can forgive our sins, but it is done to get either a ticket to Heaven or a pass out of hell. It is safety by appeasing God with our behavior. God is a means to an end, not a treasure.

LIFE WITH GOD

Luke 12:34, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

So, what does a life with God look like? Being with someone connotates an understanding of what they are all about. Skye says Life with God entails treasuring, uniting, and experiencing God all in the moment. I see God as the enormous, all-knowing, all-seeing, time-independent author of the universe. Who am I that I could be with God? What possible contribution could I make?  

John Piper said, “Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above savoring God.”  Dallas Willard says, “The treasure we have in Heaven is also very much available to us now. We can and should draw on it as needed, for it is nothing less than God himself and the wonderful society of His Kingdom even now intertwined in my life.”

Life with God is the contiguous interaction with God every moment of our lives. It is a constant dialog with or without words. God becomes the object of your existence. In Matthew 13, Jesus talks about a man who, when he found a treasure in the field, sold all he had to acquire that field. To have a Life with God is to sell out of your worldly life to acquire a greater treasure in Christ. God is not the means of getting our treasure; He is the treasure.

GOD IS THE TREASURE

It is not about following the rules, being kind, earning blessings, or getting to Heaven. It is about selling out to God as the only value in your life.

Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

He knows what we need; he is not insensitive to our situation. But he is not here to build treasures here on earth. He is the treasure. It is great to dream of a life with no pain, loved ones around us, and eternal bliss, but without the treasure, it is meaningless. Can you live for Christ without anticipating Him rewarding you for your effort? Is salvation about eternity in Heaven, or is it eternity sitting at the feet of Christ?

Colossians 2:3, “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”