Monday, March 27, 2017

Lies We Believe About God (9)

Summary of Chapter 9
The 9th 'lie' Young speaks about is that 'God is a magician' waiting for us to give him the right ingredients before He does what we want Him to do. He confronts to variations of this lie. First, some people treat faith like magic (if we have enough of it... and the right kind of it... God is obligated to give us what we are believing in/for). Second, some people treat performance like magic (if we do certain things... God will be pleased with us and give us whatever we ask for). The alternative, once again for Young, is relationship.

Reaction
The beginning of chapter 8 and all of chapter 9 speak to the problem of a 'magical' understanding of faith. As a pastor, I come across this 'lie' often. I completely agree with Young that this is a lie many people believe about God. And it does leave people feeling horribly about their faith and/or performance. My only issue is that Young doesn't imagine many would blame God when the magic fails, but I think many do, in fact, do just that. No objections here.

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