What’s your preference?
The above might be categorized as, “Questions never asked by God.”
It’s a question present within our institutional congregations, maybe, but I can’t find a place in God’s Word where He’s told us to list our preferences. I think the closest Word could be Psalm 37.4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” but that still seems miles from the superficiality and potential selfishness of preferences.
The Christian’s mission isn’t about meeting preferences – quite the opposite -it’s about the needs of the other. It’s the lost, the lonely and the others who are the focus of Divine Attention. God says, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 13.47)
That being said…there is a paradoxical Truth in play here. God has set up this marvelous blessing; that when we focus on being a Light for the Gentiles (of the day) we’ll be blessed in return! I.e., when we give we get. It doesn’t work if we try and give in order to get because that’s only manipulation. But it does work wonderfully when we give for the sake of the other. That’s God’s plan!
The best part is we don’t need to muster our meager light to be a light to the Gentiles. We just need to receive and reflect the Light that comes from Jesus who called himself the light of the world. (John 8.12)
You see, we’re not the beauty of the mountainside forest, but we are the still lake reflecting back the beauty above. We’re not the brilliance of the sun, but we are the moon on a clear night.
When we light up we reflect up and out.