Manipulating God

How does your personal history affect your view of God?

History has left the Mongolian people with a distorted view of God.

"The Mongolians have had shamanism — a worship of spirits in trees, water, fire, etc. — for hundreds of years," wrote missionaries Jim and Lianne Glemboski.. "Buddhism was added on top of it. … It boils down to the Mongolians thinking they can manipulate the gods.”

This leads them to assume incorrectly that the God of the universe can also be manipulated.

As I read the Glemboskis’ letter, I found myself nodding along. That’s not terribly different from the way tribal people around the world view God. Their traditional religions teach them to manipulate the spirits, so it just makes sense for them to assume that if they do the right things, they can get God to give them what they want.

It got closer to home as the Glemboskis went on.

“Someone may come faithfully to his church, attending all of the meetings. This person may give testimony Sunday after Sunday to the Lord’s working in their lives — most of His working involving finances. … Their natural thinking concludes that God’s ‘blessings’ should look like financial wealth.”

Oh boy – don’t you and I know people just like that?

But then it got way too close to home.

Aren’t there times I think like that?

There sure are. There are times I think that serving Him full-time should result in, well, more. But serving Him is not about receiving material blessings. It’s not even about being blessed at all. The opportunity to serve Him is itself a blessing.

And that’s the spirit in which we offer you opportunities to take part in our ministry.

Pray with our latest requests >>

Make a secure online gift to our ministry >>

Drop us a note of encouragement >