Deliver Us From
I have a friend who works for the company that brings people boxes in a big brown truck. He delivers. My wife's ob-gyn delivered our two children. The minister delivers a sermon, college students deliver pizzas, actors deliver their lines, and a big eagle delivered Prometheus every day. So why do we want to be delivered? I'm pretty sure that it has nothing to do with Prometheus. To deliver has several definitions, but they all have one thing in common: they all denote someone bringing something to another person. Delivering packages means that one person brings the package and hands it over to another. Delivering a lecture or a sermon means that one person brings ideas to another. Delivering a baby means that someone brings a child out into the world. In the context of the prayer, delivering us from evil means that Someone (God) brings someone else (us) out of the realm of evil. To be delivered, then, at its heart means to be carried. We want God to carry us.
Asking God to carry us is not a sign of giving up or of weakness. Asking God to carry us is an admission that we cannot do something without God's help--and that thing is to stand against evil. We could argue that we cannot do anything without God's help, but here, in this context, we need to limit ourselves to just this one thing.
When we ask someone to deliver something for us, we are putting trust into that person. We trust that the pizza guy will bring us the pizza we ordered (in a timely manner, if we are lucky, and with all the toppings we asked for). We trust that the professor will deliver information that is correct and that will help us in our studies. We trust that the doctor (or midwife) will deliver our babies safely. We trust that the minister will deliver a sermon that is true. Even when we might not completely trust the person, if we are asking for him (or her) to deliver something for us, then we are investing some amount of trust in that person.
As a teacher, I often ask students to deliver things. Sometimes the thing might be an actual thing, a paper or a parcel that I ask the student to carry to someone else. Sometimes the thing might be something abstract, as when I ask a student to deliver an idea on a test or in a paper. By asking the student to deliver this thing, whatever it is, I am investing my trust in this young person, I am putting faith in him that he will do his best--otherwise, my asking him is an empty gesture. If I enter into the contract--the understanding that he will deliver the thing--with the mindset that he will fail, then it does not mean anything. I have wasted our time. (Someone might argue that I could be teaching the student a lesson through such a contract, and I can see that this is possible; however, if that is my purpose, then the contract I am entering into is not the same as the one the student might perceive--my expectation defines the contract and makes the delivery a very different thing.)
Asking God to deliver us requires that we trust Him. It shows that we trust Him. Trust is essential to any relationship--that is in no way a revelation. We all know that trust is at the heart of relationships. But, why? Why is trust so important? First, of course, we have to understand what trust is: trust is a firm belief or assured reliance on the reliability or truth of someone or something. When we trust someone, we place our belief in that person, we rely on that person. In a relationship, we have to have trust because we have to believe that we can rely on the other person.
A relationship is like a contract: each person has expectations of the other, each has rights, each has responsibilities. When we are in different relationships, we have different expectations and rights and responsibilities. These things define our relationships, and so we know that our relationship with our friend is different than our relationship with our father or mother. (I could digress completely here and explore the errors that many of us make as parents when we do not see the differences between these two kinds of relationships, but I won't.) In our various relationships, we know what we should expect and, if we are paying attention, we know what we can and should do. Our relationship with God is not all that different.
Our relationship with God is very much a contract, whether we realize it or not--and by that, I mean whether we realize it is contract and also whether we realize that we are in a relationship. We do not have to acknowledge that we have a relationship with God for it to exist. The relationship is there regardless of whether we accept it or not. God does not believe in atheists. God is aware of us even when we are not aware of Him (thank goodness). In our relationship with God, we have rights and responsibilities, but there are also certain expectations--and usually these expectations are directly related to the rights and responsibilities. Our trust, then, is really the idea that our expectations will be met. We place trust in God that He will live up to His end of the bargain. We also expect that He will allow us the luxury of not always living up to His expectations of us. (To be fair, God has a rider in the contract that, in a way, releases us from having to be perfect--it has to do with giving His Son to die for our sins. God knows that we will fall short, and He provides for that.)
Our trust in God is essential to our relationship. We cannot say that we believe in God--whatever that means--but not put our trust in Him. We have to hand over everything, put it all in His hands, and then we are in a relationship. We cannot treat God like the person we speak to at the gym (or in church or at school or on the street), but whom we do not really interact with. If we want to have a real relationship, we have to open up completely and we have to place our trust--all of it--in Him.
Asking God to carry us is not a sign of giving up or of weakness. Asking God to carry us is an admission that we cannot do something without God's help--and that thing is to stand against evil. We could argue that we cannot do anything without God's help, but here, in this context, we need to limit ourselves to just this one thing.
When we ask someone to deliver something for us, we are putting trust into that person. We trust that the pizza guy will bring us the pizza we ordered (in a timely manner, if we are lucky, and with all the toppings we asked for). We trust that the professor will deliver information that is correct and that will help us in our studies. We trust that the doctor (or midwife) will deliver our babies safely. We trust that the minister will deliver a sermon that is true. Even when we might not completely trust the person, if we are asking for him (or her) to deliver something for us, then we are investing some amount of trust in that person.
As a teacher, I often ask students to deliver things. Sometimes the thing might be an actual thing, a paper or a parcel that I ask the student to carry to someone else. Sometimes the thing might be something abstract, as when I ask a student to deliver an idea on a test or in a paper. By asking the student to deliver this thing, whatever it is, I am investing my trust in this young person, I am putting faith in him that he will do his best--otherwise, my asking him is an empty gesture. If I enter into the contract--the understanding that he will deliver the thing--with the mindset that he will fail, then it does not mean anything. I have wasted our time. (Someone might argue that I could be teaching the student a lesson through such a contract, and I can see that this is possible; however, if that is my purpose, then the contract I am entering into is not the same as the one the student might perceive--my expectation defines the contract and makes the delivery a very different thing.)
Asking God to deliver us requires that we trust Him. It shows that we trust Him. Trust is essential to any relationship--that is in no way a revelation. We all know that trust is at the heart of relationships. But, why? Why is trust so important? First, of course, we have to understand what trust is: trust is a firm belief or assured reliance on the reliability or truth of someone or something. When we trust someone, we place our belief in that person, we rely on that person. In a relationship, we have to have trust because we have to believe that we can rely on the other person.
A relationship is like a contract: each person has expectations of the other, each has rights, each has responsibilities. When we are in different relationships, we have different expectations and rights and responsibilities. These things define our relationships, and so we know that our relationship with our friend is different than our relationship with our father or mother. (I could digress completely here and explore the errors that many of us make as parents when we do not see the differences between these two kinds of relationships, but I won't.) In our various relationships, we know what we should expect and, if we are paying attention, we know what we can and should do. Our relationship with God is not all that different.
Our relationship with God is very much a contract, whether we realize it or not--and by that, I mean whether we realize it is contract and also whether we realize that we are in a relationship. We do not have to acknowledge that we have a relationship with God for it to exist. The relationship is there regardless of whether we accept it or not. God does not believe in atheists. God is aware of us even when we are not aware of Him (thank goodness). In our relationship with God, we have rights and responsibilities, but there are also certain expectations--and usually these expectations are directly related to the rights and responsibilities. Our trust, then, is really the idea that our expectations will be met. We place trust in God that He will live up to His end of the bargain. We also expect that He will allow us the luxury of not always living up to His expectations of us. (To be fair, God has a rider in the contract that, in a way, releases us from having to be perfect--it has to do with giving His Son to die for our sins. God knows that we will fall short, and He provides for that.)
Our trust in God is essential to our relationship. We cannot say that we believe in God--whatever that means--but not put our trust in Him. We have to hand over everything, put it all in His hands, and then we are in a relationship. We cannot treat God like the person we speak to at the gym (or in church or at school or on the street), but whom we do not really interact with. If we want to have a real relationship, we have to open up completely and we have to place our trust--all of it--in Him.
posted by Rodney Rhodus | 12:54 PM
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