God is Not a Human Construct

There are some ideas out there in popular Christian books, music, sermons, and more that God is a Divine therapist and a cosmic vending machine. What does that mean?

Divine Therapist?

The Bible promises peace to the one whose mind is set on God: “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in you” (Isa 26:3 NASB).  He promises to give us peace in our difficulties: “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7 NASB). However, if you read Phil 4:8-9, you’ll see that we have a part to play in setting our attitudes and our focus:

“[W]hatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Phil 4:8-9 NASB).

Going to God with our pains

Certainly, we can go to God with our pain. If you come to God humbly, you can cast “all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7 NASB). Right after that, Peter exhorts his audiences to be ready to resist the Devil, who prowls around looking for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8-10).  We can take our concerns to God, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing for us to do. In fact, if you’ve seen a therapist, there’s always something to do after the appointment. The physical therapist wants me to do three sets of ten reps of some exercise or stretch.

We are not told that God will take care of everything in our emotions, our minds, or our lives in general. We have responsibilities given to us by God. Even as a psychotherapist will ask you questions, God might have questions for you and the first place to look for answers is the Bible. That may point us to a course of action to take. We can also ask him which course of action to take, but it is we who have to do that. The Lord does not promise to instantly take away our pains or resolve what is wrong. On the contrary,  Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NA\SB).

Some situations will call for getting wisdom from others, such as when you are grieving a loss or angry because your spouse cheated on you. That calls for a wise Christian counselor or pastor.  You will hopefully find help from such people, but God does not seem to plop immediate solutions to complex problems into our laps. Of course, God can do these things if he chooses to do so, but often gives us responsibility to work on the issue ourselves with help from others as needed

Cosmic Vending Machine?

That leads to the other inaccurate view of God. Many Christians are taught that if you do the right things, God will bless you and take care of you. So, if you live uprightly, you won’t ever have a problem. If you do the right thing, you’ll always have enough money. If you claim it, you’ll get it, but life doesn’t always work out that way. Just ask Kate Bowler, Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved . Now, I know that Jesus made some big promises about God answering prayer. I believe what Jesus said.  However, you may have found that God doesn’t always grant some requests. I can’t explain that mystery, and I don’t have any trite slogans, but even as Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “your will be done,” I assume that answers to many prayers depend not only on promises but on God’s will. I could say more, but again, this topic is too big for a blog post.

What is vital to know is that God doesn’t exist for us to have fun. He is not a Santa Claus in the sky who gives us whatever we ask for. If we treat God like our Swiss Army knife, ready to do whatever task we want, we treat God like a trained seal. God did not make us so that we could call on him to give us whatever we ask. Indeed, if God did that, we might never know what God is like and what he expects of us. Many nations and people groups worship physical idols in the belief that if they do what that deity wants, they will receive good, like rain or fertility (the chief blessing of Ba-al in the Old Testament). We don’t have that sort of beg and barter relationship with God.

We would do well to take to heart the voices of the four living creatures and twenty-four elders in Revelation who say, “Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for you created all things, and because of your will they existed, and were created” (Rev 4:11 NASB). In other words, we exist at God’s pleasure, and not the other way around. While it is biblical to pray for God’s help or provision for ourselves or others, we need to focus on the Giver, not the gift. How can you focus more on the Giver than the gift that you seek from the Lord?

Before you say, “What about…,” I acknowledge that these matters are more complex and nuanced than what I have written here. There are entire books on these topics, but what I’ve written accords with Scripture.

Why Does This Matter for Prayer?

Have you ever trusted someone, a friend, a person doing work on your home, a teacher, etc.? How did you feel when this person let you down, lied to you, or cheated you? You lose because you expected that person to act differently.  If I think that God is different than I expect him to be, then when I ask God for help or a good life, I’ll be disappointed. That makes many people feel bitter toward the Lord. (Of course God does not lie or cheat us.) The bitterness can lead to a barrier between a believer and God. None of us wants that. I’ve had a couple of big disappointments in life. I once got an eye infection. The doctors who treated it did not do the right thing and I ended up with a cataract. You’re not supposed to get cataracts at 33. The surgeon who did the cataract surgery botched it and destroyed my right retina. He didn’t think that was possible, so he kept me from seeing a retina specialist for two months. By then, it was too late. I’ve spent over half my life now with only one functioning eye. Surgery to repair my retina, which didn’t work but required me to lie flat on my back for two months. I begged God to heal me but he didn’t.

In my first year as a Christian, I heard the teaching in  my church that God has a perfect will for the lives of all believers: who I should marry, where I should live, and what I should do for a living. I believed it then (but not now). A couple of months after this, out of the blue I thought perhaps that God said, ‘Teach the Word.” Since I wanted career guidance, I thought this was direction to a particular career path: teaching the Bible in a church context. To make a long story short, I have a B.A. that focused on biblical studies, a M.Div., which is normally a degree for future pastors, and a Ph.D. in New Testament studies.  However, after applying to probably 100 different teaching positions, doing all the things you’re supposed to do to get hired, I never found a full-time position.

I begged God regularly over several years if it was his voice I heard. I never got a clear answer but I think the answer is “no.” Although I prayed and prayed and prayed for clarification, I never got it. Where was God? If he called me to teach, then he should have helped me get a position. Instead, though well-qualified with adjunct teaching experience, I didn’t get hired. After one of my interviews, I learned that I didn’t get the position because of ableism. I was born with a variety of eye problems and my eyes don’t look “normal.” That’s illegal, but God did not intervene. I offer these as examples because I can speak accurately about my own experience, not someone else’s.

Finding a Better Image of God

Both of these situations, that are still with me to this day, have led to many questions to God and questions about God. Romans 8:28 didn’t help. I’ve struggled with bitterness toward God off and on for some time. What I needed to do, however, was to have a more mature view of prayer and God. I never felt a sense of God’s presence or help while I laid on my back for two months. What I needed was a bigger, more mysterious God. Like many others before me, I tried to figure out what God was doing in these situations, but as God said through Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways” (Isa. 55:8 NASB). Then, in 55:9, the Lord declares, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:9 NASB). If we think we have figured out God, our god is too small, to borrow from J. B. Phillips. We must not assume that God is going to solve or give us simple solutions to all our woes. If we are realistic and follow Scripture carefully, we will find that God is not a divine therapist or cosmic vending machine. He is more profound than either of those. He cares about us deeply. However, let’s not assume God is there to do our bidding, no matter what some author or televangelist says.

Some readers may have serious hurts and sorrows. I’m not saying those things don’t matter, because they do. Peter already told us that God cares about us. I’m also not saying, “Don’t worry, be happy.” That’s not a biblical perspective either. We are not called to affirm that everything is fine when it isn’t. So, I’m not trying to trivialize anyone else’s sorrow. I don’t trivialize my own, but we must remember that “The LordMany years ago, when I worked as a computer programmer in southern California, there was a problem with some computer program. The woman who identified what was wrong said the software didn’t work because we had the wrong version of the program. If God doesn’t seem to work as you want him to, perhaps you have the wrong version of God. This should lead us all back to Scripture to see what God reveals about himself and how he interacts with the world that he made. We need to step to his beat, not ask him to step to ours. We must resist the narcissistic culture that puts me and my needs or desires before anything else. We also need to resist a “quick fix” mentality. Even though U.S. culture, from television shows to magazines at the grocery store checkout stand urge us to buy into these false ideas, neither of them describe what Jesus calls us to be and to do. is God, and I am not.”

A Useful Resource

We all have questions about unanswered prayer. You may find it helpful to read God on Mute: Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer by Peter Greig, Baker Books, 2011.