I always fell to her fake generosity.
When I was growing up, my older sister would often approach us younger brothers and innocently say, “Would you like your back scratched?” Seeming like a loving gesture, I would agree. Just as she was finishing up scratching my back, she would invariably turn to me and demand, “All right, now it is your turn. I scratched your back; you scratch mine!”
Though this is the way that my sister and I related to each other, this is not the case with us and God. We cannot scratch his back—offering up prayers, faithful church attendance, giving to charities—with the expectation that he must scratch ours (give us a pay raise or a quiet house with perfect kids). Try as we might, we can never put God in our debt by our strict religious performance.
The reason for this is simple: God has no needs. It is not as though God is up in heaven on Thursdays thinking, “I am feeling a bit lonely. I cannot wait until Sunday to get some praises sung to me or to hear some really great preaching.” As the Apostle Paul said, “Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25).
How then shall we relate to this awesome God? We serve and worship him not because we are earning any favor from him, but we do it because we have received his favor in his Son, Jesus Christ. His death pays for our sins and unites us to God. The payment is complete. All we can do is receive.
