What can God do for you?

United Parcel Service (UPS) had a slogan: What can Brown do for you?

The point of their slogan and the associated ad campaign was to convince businesses and consumers that no matter what shipping needs they had, UPS could meet that need.

Why is it that we believe what advertisers tell us about a company's capabilities? What causes us to put complete faith in human endeavor but question God's ability to meet our needs?

Last night in our church youth group, we discussed the conflict between depending on God to do what he wants to do in one's life and the effort one has to put into life in order to achieve something God wants to do through someone.

Read that one more time just to make sure you get it! :-)


The example we talked about last night was: if God wants me to go to college - even a specific college - I have to put some effort forward - not skipping classes, doing my homework, keeping my GPA up, etc.

However, our guest speaker shared an example of something a little different. He was able to get accepted into the University of Mobile - a tough school to get accepted to - with a 2.1 GPA. He went to class during his senior year in high school maybe twice a week; generally not putting a lot of effort into it.

Did God want him at UM? Was God able to move situations and events to allow him to gain acceptance even without meeting the minimum standards?

Only God knows for sure.

I'm not saying that anyone who has faith in God should just plop down on the couch and say, "If God wants me to be an airline pilot - or lawyer, or bricklayer, or whatever - He will make it happen and I'll just sit here and wait for that moment."

But if we're going to have faith the size of a mustard seed, if we're going to believe that God can move mountains for us - if that mountain is in the way of His will for our lives - shouldn't we believe that He can do it with our without our intervention?

As believers, we need to seek God's will for our lives through the Bible, prayer, life circumstances, and our church fellowship. Sometimes God will ask us to take action; other times He will ask us to wait. But in all cases, if we are obedient - His will will be done.

This is a HUGE issue that could never really be unpacked in a simple blog entry. But I wanted to put it out there for folks to think about and comment on.

If we believe that UPS, or any company, can meet our every need, why is it so hard to rely on God?

Let me know what you think...

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