How Do We Overcome the Desire to be Divine?

Anger.
Nothing but pure unleashed rage.
Humans, our ability to see injustices in the world is shocking. Sex trafficking? Maddening.
Rape, murder, famine, disease, how can you say there is a God? How, even if there was a God, would he be doing anything worth attention?
Recently a friend of mine posted a status discussing his disgust at the ability of a person in the spotlight to throw away "belief" in a religion, for fame and money. I agree, if you believe something, and ditch it so that you can get more money, then it's truly despicable. This status provoked a very angered friend of his to post about his disgust with "God" "religion" and "Christians".

Some of the comments that were made (which have been greatly paraphrased to keep this blog G-Rated)

"Religion is keeping us from breaking away from a fantasy"
"If God is real, I wouldn't mind punching him in the face because of the atrocities in the world"
"Jesus was just another one of those guys who claimed to be God's disciples"
"No one knows (how the world was made), but religion teaches it's okay not to know--which is truly despicable."

And my favorite one:

"I'll take my risk. I would gladly defy a true God to the ends of my very breath. Do you think I FEAR God? Do you think I should fear God? Why!? I am but a simple human and they're millions of us. I am a vessel and nothing more. I will never bend to the will of any GOD, fictional,  or real as my living flesh. If God is righteous, he'll understand my frustration. If he is cruel, then let him be cruel. He hasn't done **** anyways, why would he start now???"

AH! The statements that were made on this status were so heartfelt! SO ANGRY, so full of pure, unleashed rage toward God.

Isn't that what the scriptures say we have against God anyways? We don't want him, we'll never want him. This guy has stated something all of us have questioned from time to time.

"God, if you're there, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?!"

But here's the beauty of the gospel: "God hasn't done **** anyways" isn't true.
God's done EVERYTHING. He keeps the breathe in our lungs that we use to defy him, he could have been a God of chaos and disorder, and let us all go to hell and been declared righteous. But he didn't. There's a song by a band named Attalus that addresses this issue:

"The blood, the tears, the sweat, why does it feel so wrong?
Disaster pain and death, Oh God, where have you gone?
The world was in your hands, you let it fall head long,
So either you're not good or you're just not that strong."

And later the response from God:

"God said, the blood the tears, the sweat, I died to right your wrong
Disaster, pain, and death, oh man, where have you gone?
The world was falling fast --I cast myself head-long

To save your rebel souls to prove my love is strong"

See, God didn't just let us feel pain. He felt it too, he had his flesh ripped off and his heart torn in two by the disease, the famine, the rape, the murder. His heart screams in anguish at the works of our bloody hands, and said "I will save you". The beauty of it is, God has died for all the "despicable" things we have created. With wood, gold, and flesh we have decided we are good enough on our own without God, and then blame him for the problems we see. We blame him for giving us free will, but scream in rage at the thought of predestination.

We're messed up. So God came to save us. Not just clean us up, not just to "squeaky clean our hearts". But to pick us up, and give us a new place-- a place where we belong.

But not only is the man who commented on the status angry, he's also defiant. The saddest part of the whole thing that he wrote is this line: "I will never bend to the will of any GOD, fictional,  or real as my living flesh. If God is righteous, he'll understand my frustration. If he is cruel, then let him be cruel."

Even though God has saved our wretched souls, even though he's done everything to give us a beautiful world to live in, even though Jesus was NOT a "disciple" of God (But actually GOD HIMSELF) even though he lost his life (and regained it!!!) for the wretched things we do---

We still don't want him. Even if we could prove to this man that God existed, he wouldn't want anything to do with him. That's the depravity of our sin nature.

So how does anyone come to God? How do we get over our desire to be divine?

That my friends, is the beauty of the gospel. A mystery that's inexplicable. Jesus changes our thoughts and our hearts---he transforms us.

What a great and glorious God!!!!!!