Do We Feel the Need to Defend God?

Note: This post concerns a passage from the daily readings for January 15, 2013. Due to technical difficulties I was unable to post it until today.

Isaiah 40:25-31
I find myself wondering sometimes about the need to take up for God, to defend God, whether that’s a task that I as a minister or even as a person of faith should undertake. Does God need me to somehow defend or protect the divine name? On the one hand, I believe I have been called through Jesus Christ into a relationship with God and that I bear the responsibility to live in faithful obedience to God’s will. But on the other hand, does God really need my protection against even the most cynical and sinful aspects of our culture? Is that what faithfulness is all about? Is God really that vulnerable?

The prophet Isaiah has a word for us on the subject. “Have you not known?” he asks. “Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31). For Isaiah there is no question as to the roles God plays: as Creator, bringing the world into being; as Sustainer, strengthening the powerless and empowering the weak; and as Redeemer, answering “those who wait for the Lord” with what they need in order to rise above their challenges. In other words, God does not need me—or anyone—to offer protection or to somehow safeguard the presence of God. Indeed, it is God who is at work in the world, who creates us, sustains us, redeems us.

The reason I bring this up is that from time to time I have become aware of Christians who act as though God is being beaten or overwhelmed in the public sphere. Their concerns often center around particular social views that they believe are in opposition of God’s will. They may very well be correct. Much of what happens in our world is ungodly. The danger is that when we build a wall around God and what we perceive to be God’s intentions we are really setting limits on our own spiritual growth, our own willingness to be led by God to a new understanding of what it means to be God’s people. That’s when we must seriously wrestle with the difference between where we think God may be leading us and where we feel certain God would never go.

This is not an easy problem to solve, but I believe it is made somewhat easier when we stop defining God’s limits, stop trying to defend God and what we feel God is all about, and instead allow God to defend us, and to lead us, and change us, and transform us. As Isaiah might say, once we decide to “wait on the Lord,” we will find God lifting us to new heights and new perspectives according to God’s will.

Prayer: Almighty God, lead us in your path according to your will and give us the strength to answer your call in our lives, wherever it may lead us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.