“For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!” (Psalm 92:4-5)What if God were a pill you take once a morning?
Would it make your life better?
Would it make all your decisions easier?
Would it make you happier?
Pop a God pill and instantly you would follow all His commandments.
You would look forward to going to work, with gladness in your heart.
You would have love for one another, do no harm and only good, feed the poor, tithe regularly, never skip a devotion, attend church weekly, and sing praises to the Lord daily.
What if I told you that you can achieve the very same results by loving Jesus and having a genuine relationship with Him?
“But taking a God pill would be so much easier,” you say, “I wouldn’t have to work at it.”
The problem with that, however, is that a pill does not provide an intimate encounter and knowledge of who God is in your life.
A pill is not a “relationship.”
A pill offers no “intimacy.”
A pill does not provide “love.”
A pill is a poor substitute for supernatural “God Power.”
YOU have to seek HIM, and the reward is immeasurable.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (1:17) tells us:
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”
Your Joy is in the Lord
He is our joy because we know Him and love Him. He saved us through his Son, Jesus.
“My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you— I whom you have delivered.” (Psalm 71:23)
God doesn’t want robots. He wants people to love Him with their own free-will and desire, not being persuaded by some chemical in the body that says, “Fellowship with me!”
Joy in a pill or joy in the Lord? Which provides true happiness?
Strange, isn’t it, how we have become a society tuned into taking a pill to make our problems go away or to find some fleeting moment of happiness in life.
I don’t mean the contraband you get from a guy in a trench coat hanging around an alley. I mean the legitimate anxiety-related pills sold by the pharmaceutical giants.
There are pills to help you go to sleep, wake you up, make you less excitable, make you more excitable, less irritable or more irritable.
You can pop a pill if your boss yelled at you today, a pill to help you stay alert, a pill if you are fearful of leaving the house, a pill if you’re anxious about life, a pill if you are listless or have the blahs, a pill if you’re unhappy in life.
The list is endless. There’s a pill for everything.
The disclaimers alone should be enough to send you running in the other direction.
Since lawyers hold sway in America and have turned the populace into a sue-happy society, pill makers have to list all known side effects of their product.
Ever really listen to those pill commercials?
They go something like this: “Side effects of End-It-All may include headache, nausea, vomiting, death, dizziness, dysentery, cardiac arrhythmia, lycanthropy, shrinking brain, exploding blood vessels, hemorrhoids, more vomiting, body rash, hairy backs, webbed feet and a craving to watch “Gilligan’s Island” reruns.
“If you feel like you’re going to die, stop taking immediately and consult with your physician (who prescribed it to you in the first place).”
To be fair, there are many pills diligently created by companies to help our bodies function better and live longer.
God is Not a Pill, He’s…
Thankfully, God is not a pill, but a real, live spirit who holds the world in His hand.
His love for you is powerful, more powerful than any pill man can ever create.
Witness His sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sins and mine.
Witness His resurrection three days later after having defeated Satan and death.
Witness His love for you, so that all may come to repentance and that none should perish.
A relationship with God helps you to understand His precepts for you to live a fuller life. As the Bible says, Jesus came to make our joy complete.
“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” (Psalm 16:11)
There is no intimate knowledge of God the Father, of Jesus, of the Holy Spirit in pill form.
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!” (Jude 1:2-5)
What can you achieve with a “happy pill” that God cannot give you?
“Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalms 37:4)
What delight can a “happy pill” give you that God will not provide?
“I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10)
What “happy pill” can ever take away your sins and bring you into a joy with God?
“”I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)
What “happy pill” can bestow upon you the great promises of God?
“Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” (John 16:24).
Life will always have its peaks and valleys, its moments of pure despair and of overflowing joyfulness.
Wouldn’t you rather face life holding onto God’s hand rather than a bottle of pills?
“For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” (Isaiah 41:13).
My God is not a pill. My God is the Rock of Ages. In Him will I trust!
Great post Ani! God’s passion for protecting our free will blows my mind. He doesn’t want someone devoted to him because of a pill, as you say in your article. Yet an interesting attitude in our culture seems pervasive right now: it seems like many of us want a God who is under the influence of a pill that causes Him to conform to what we want. Thanks for writing this Ani, I pray for our Father’s best blessings on you and your family.
Thank you Kurt, always humbled by your comments and blessings. As you point out, a “God Pill” can also come in the form of what we want God to be. I am reminded of 2 Timothy 4:3 that says “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” No substitute for a relationship with Jesus!
Excellent thank you for sharing. God bless you.
Greg
Thank you, Greg. I pray it ministered to you in some way. God is so awesome, and only a personal relationship with Him can help us comprehend, even in some minute way, His great love for us.