Photo by Hasan Albari: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-iphone-7-1275229/

One of the responses to our social media campaign was a demand from a Tibetan (let's call him Harry) that we give him money or an iPhone. His request was based on a simple premise: God loves everyone, therefore God (and by extension we) should meet his demands for worldly goods.

It is a strange thing. Buddhists declare that earthly desires are a form of attachment that leads to suffering. At the same time, the fact that there are poor people is held up as a subject of debate. If God loves all people, why does he allow poor people to suffer? The conclusion they draw is that therefore God does not exist.

I tried to reason with Harry. It became clear that he was angry and bitter. He said that God had not provided for him as he wanted.

I asked Harry if he had made God his king and he only mocked me - he would never do something like that. In fact, Harry had decided that he was going to burn his Bible.

The conversation ended as Harry was unwilling to listen to anything I had to say.

We see something like that all over the world. It seems that Harry thought his Bible was a sort oif talisman akin to the charmed bracelets Tibetans wear. He thought that possessing it would cause the money to flow to him. Elsewhere people think that a few prayers and the occasional church visit obliges God to provide them with anything their whim desires.

God is not an ATM, bargaining this favour for that piece of "service." He wants our hearts. We go to him on his terms and those terms are that we are to be fully submitted to him. He wants to be king of all, not an afterthought.

And then he gives us something far better than money that can be stolen or iPhones that soon will end up in the trash. He gives us things that never fade but give true meaning to life: For example, we gain love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We gain an eternal life without pain, sickness, hunger or death.

And yes, he does provide our earthly needs in his way and in his time.

May we all continue to make God the King of our lives!

About the Author: Bert completed CPx in Cape Town in 2015. Since then he and his wife have been working among the unreached peoples of the southern Himalayas. His joy is his three daughters and three grandchildren who all love Jesus.

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