“Shall we receive good from the LORD, and not evil?”

So there’s this interesting aspect of the human psyche. We are - at our core - deeply uncomfortable with receiving gifts without a sense of some form of payback. “Nothing goes for nothing”, as the popular saying goes. Or “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” (come to think of it, the English lexicon has several aphorisms conveying the essence of this matter, so the list is endless). 

In fact, the many written and unwritten laws of power advocate keeping people in debt of you, so you can call in favors when it is most beneficial to you. So the expectation of reciprocity is deeply knitted in the human experience. 

And this is where many of us run into problems in the Christian faith. First of all, you meet a God that saves you - body, soul and spirit; from sin, death and judgement. That essentially moves mountains for you, does the impossible to secure your eternal destiny, and all you have to do is “believe in Him”. The imbalance stands out so sorely. What do you mean I get access to the throne of the Most High, to innumerable blessings, to redemption, restoration, regeneration, victory, just by confessing and believing? This is a point of struggle and many resort to a works-based salvation approach to try to even out the balance and do enough to earn the mercies of God (which is impossible). 

As strange as this all sounds, this is the truth of the God of Christianity. 

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9). He hasn’t asked us to kill any goats, climb any mountains, perform any rituals, or even try to clean ourselves up or get our act right. All He said is “confess and believe”. He is the one that releases the power to become righteous - “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name: “ (John 1:12). 

But this is a starting point problem. Even in the faith, we still struggle with this matter of reciprocity. Coming to God with child-like faith is something we have to get used to: some of us believe unless we pay our tithes faithfully, live perfect sinless lives, we have no right or authority to petition God for our needs. We need that constant reminder that the blood made us whole, that not only are we redeemed we are also restored, and we have right-standing with God through the blood of Jesus.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We have been instructed to draw near (Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need - Hebrews 4:16). And draw near we must. 

There’s still another layer in our faith walk that we struggle with the matter of reciprocity. When things are on an unexpectedly good run, and life is going relatively well for us. Whether it’s a sense of guilt for getting the better end of the stick in a largely warped world, or something else, a part of us starts to rationalize acceptance of a partial loss to balance out the good run we’ve been having. It’s like the person who has 5 houses and gets warned in prophecy or via dream that one of the houses will be lost in fire. The typical reaction - given the background above - will be to shrug and repeat the titular passage from the book of Job - “Shall we receive good from the Lord, and not evil?” This kind of rationalized loss takes different forms - an illness, a seemingly minor tragedy, an isolated breakdown, the list goes on. 

In times as such above, as rational as it seems to accept a minor loss as a counter-balance to a season of winning streaks, it is very important to recognize it as what it is: the destroyer’s play. In such moments, it’s usually the devil trying to get us to come into agreement with his agenda - which is to steal, kill and destroy. And it’s never a good bargain: the devil runs the very opposite setup from God. God aims to give, give and give more abundantly. The devil aims to take, take and take into devastation (John 10:10). Don’t give the devil any foothold to collect anything, no matter how minimal or insignificant. 

In such moments, the most critical action is to extensively immerse oneself in reminders of the goodness of God. Because the devil plays to win - he will wage an intensive battle in your mind to remind you how undeserving you are of your blessings, how easy it will be to accept a minor defeat, how unfair you are to enjoy so much when others may not be as fortunate, how insignificant the matter at hand is, and so on. 

You must resist the devil, the same way our Lord Jesus resisted him in the wilderness. Arm yourself with scripture, and even if you don’t have the specific scripture, a simple “The Lord rebukes you. I reject this plan for loss, and cancel these ideations for disease, devastation, destruction in the mighty name of Jesus. I accept only God’s good purpose over my life - thoughts of good and not evil, to bring me to an expected end”.

The life of victory in Christ is a life of waging against the natural inclinations. And not just the inclinations for selfishness and sin, but the imaginations that raise themselves against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). In all, we must strive to deepen our relationship with God to understand His nature, His intents, His plan, so we can discern when the devil is trying to sneak in one of his nasty schemes masquerading as “God’s plan”. Let’s devote ourselves to prayer, to study of the Bible, to fellowship with believers equally keen to grow in God. Grace and peace.