Five to good minutes with God - Cheating on God's tests is encouraged!

I recently was reflecting upon my days in high school - which was more than just a few years ago! I distinctly remember all the quizzes and tests that we had to take, but especially dreading the midterms and finals. I really hated those!

The experience of taking those tests was always the same. We would sit at our desks, row after row with our heads down and eyes on our own paper. The teacher would be sitting in the front of class at her desk, scanning the room to make sure we are doing our own work - not copying off our neighbor’s paper. Occasionally the teacher would get up from her desk and slowly walk up and down each aisle, hands behind her back, peering over our shoulders, checking to see what we were doing and of course, making certain everyone was doing their own work. Each of us knew all too well, the penalty for cheating!

The entire experience could be quite stressful!

Does that description sound familiar?

Obviously, the intention of exams is to determine what each student has learned individually. Tests are used to determine what students are capable of - on their own…buy themselves; thereby providing a way to grade each student’s performance.

Now if this is dredging up bad memories from high school I apologize! But I do have some good news if you’re finding yourself feeling a little queasy!

When it comes to our faith, God doesn’t administer tests like that!

God actually encourages us to look at our neighbors to see what they are doing and to copy off their successes. As a matter of fact, God actually wants us to come up to Him - sitting at the front desk like a schoolteacher - and ask Him for help. He wants us to admit to Him that we don’t quite understand the problem and we need help to figure it out.

Now think about that for a moment - comparing it to your days in high school.

Imagine in the middle of your exam getting up from your desk, walking to the front of the room, looking your teacher in the eyes and telling her,

“I don’t understand this question at all. Can you help me figure this out?” The teacher looks up at you, smiles as she takes the paper from your hand and slowly begins to explain how to solve the problem. “OK, here is where you went wrong, right here you forgot to divide by 7 - and later you should have used the square root rather than multiplying by 3. There you go, now it’s right. Looks like you aced the test!”

That would NEVER happen in a classroom, but that’s exactly how it can happen with God, because that is actually what God wants us to do. God wants us to come to Him and ask for help.

Remember, God did NOT create the world by separating the land from the water, creating plants and animals, creating man and woman and then on the seventh day sitting back, as He rested, saying ”Okay I’m done. Good luck! See you in a few million years!” God did NOT do that! God is much more active and participatory in our everyday lives.

But, on the other hand he doesn’t force himself upon us either. God is not going to interject Himself into our lives - if not asked. It’s up to us to develop a relationship where we are comfortable asking God for help - in small things and in big things - it doesn’t matter. God just wants us to come to him and ask for His help.

God is not interested in what we can do alone. He is much more interested in our reaching out to Him for help and reaching out to the people he puts in our lives. That’s the real way to get an “A” on our test of faith.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make is to rely on ‘what we think we know’ and attempt to do it ourselves. It is like trying to prove to everyone how smart we are and how much we know - maybe like those exams in high school. This limits what we can achieve: alone we can only accomplish so much and even then it’s not really us succeeding because every skill we have comes from God in the first place.

Perhaps our greatest accomplishment is to look back at a past achievement and realize we have no idea how it was accomplished! Personally, I know that every past success was far beyond anything I could ever have done by myself - I KNOW God helped me tremendously. God was there and brought more to the party then I ever could have myself.

Why does God do that? Why does God want to help us? One theme I have been sharing lately is: ”Behold I make all things new again”. God helping us is an example of one way in which God makes us new again.

When we don’t trust just our own abilities, we open ourselves to everything that God can offer us - and then the possibilities become truly endless!

Take a moment and thank God for all the gifts, skills and abilities you are blessed with. Ask God to help you realize all that He is assisting you with every single day - then ask Him to help you to reach out and ask for even more help! Admit that you need Him in order to succeed and to get through the difficult situations in life.

Know that you can only do it with His help.

Amen

Written on behalf of the Holy Redeemer youth group. During our weekly youth group nights, we set aside “5 good minutes with God” as a way to begin a habit of deepening our faith life.

Copyright 2016 Steven Pulskamp

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