“Mom, if I clean my room, will you take me to the park?”
“Hey, Dad, if I help with dinner, can we have dessert?”
“Lauren, I’ll clean out the dishwasher for you if you let me play with your birthday present.”
Most of your life is spent negotiating, dealing, and telling people, “I’ll do something nice for you if you pay me back.” Sometimes it even works.
Do you ever try to play this game with God? Maybe you say, “God, I promise I will pray every single day if you just let me get an A on this test” or “Dear God, I won’t ever hit my brother again if you let me get the new Xbox.”
You can’t bribe God. You can’t do a good deed for him and then expect something in return. That’s not how it works with him, because everything was, is, and comes from him in the first place. “Who gave the Lord something which the Lord must pay back? Everything is from him and by him and for him. Glory belongs to him forever! Amen!” (Romans 11:35,36).
Now this doesn’t mean God is stingy. He’s not sitting on some big throne handing out one itty-bitty blessing at a time. In reality, he loves to pour blessings into your life so much that you can barely keep track of them all. What it does mean is that you can’t bargain your way to God’s blessings. You can’t earn them. You can’t work for them. You can’t bargain for them. You simply get to thank him for letting you use his stuff in this world to bring him glory.
