THE SPIRITUAL CANDY SHOP

THE SPIRITUAL CANDY SHOP

If you are a chocolate lover like me then perhaps you have had some form of this dream.  You walk into a fine confectionery shop, enjoy a chocolate selection and a coffee at the corner table, close your eyes for a moment and when you awake you find that they have closed the store around you.  There you are, poor soul, locked in a veritable Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory for the night – whatever will you do!  You have your pick: apples covered in layers of chocolate, strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, mints, caramels, you name it and it has been dipped, sprinkled with or injected with chocolate.  They find you in the morning, dead, but with a smile and a tell tale smear of chocolate on your face.  Death by chocolate.

Spiritually speaking, some have interpreted John 14:12-14 in a similar fashion as my “night in the confectionery shop” story.  Jesus says that if you ask it in my name you will get it.  If this is so, why have so many of my dinners not ended with chocolate pudding!  Perhaps a more important question would be, “If I ask the Lord for something in the name of Jesus, then why have my friends still died, their marriages fallen apart or their lives been shattered through suffering that I specifically asked the Lord, in the name of Jesus, to relieve them of?”

“In the name of Jesus” is not the same as the magician’s “hocus pocus” and out comes a rabbit from the hat.  There is no magic formula to access the power of God.  There is God’s will, and that is perfect; there is my will and that is far from perfect.  If we are to understand the passage we must come to grips with the distinction between His perfect will and my imperfect will.  We must understand that His perfect will is what we need to have; whether or not we like it. 

I dare you – start to pray for His will and His glory to be done in your life without limiting it to what might be considered good, pleasing, or helpful according to the standards of society or to you personally.  Go ahead, ask the Lord for His glory to be demonstrated in your life regardless of what it may cost you or do to you personally.  Seek His will with all that you are; then you will begin to understand that “God’s candy shop” is not always stocked with what we like, but is filled with what will best glorify Him.  When you are satisfied with that, then you will understand John 14:12-14.  Then, whether it is life or death, it will still be God’s glory – and you will know your purpose.