Dallas Willard: ResponsiveWhen Wanted

And He knows when He is wanted and when He is not. Similarly, where people are really seeking a response from someone else, He does not intrude—generally speaking. So when our aim is to impress human beings with how devout we are, He lets us do that and stands aside. Of course, He will eventually have His day. There will be a “day of the Lord,” His turn at bat, as it were.

On the other hand, if we live unto God alone, He responds to our expectations—which are of Him alone. Os Guinness, the well-known Christian thinker and leader, has said of the Puritans in American history that they lived as if they stood before an audience of One. They carried on their lives as if the only one whose opinion mattered were God. Of course they understood that this is what Jesus Christ taught them to do."

Dallas Willard (1935-2013) in The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God (San Francisco: HarperOne, 1998) 190.

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This post may capture how life in God works as well as any one I have ever posted. Notice the posture of God.

He’s responsive.

He sees and responds to our expectations. If He sees we want human approval, He lets us get what we desire, though it is not what is best for us.

But when wanted He behaves differently in the best kind of way.

It puzzles onlookers, but those who live for God as if to live for an audience of one, see God care for them better than they could care for themselves.

It’s often miraculous.

I just said this to someone in Ghana this past week. I have learned that the best way to care for yourself is to focus on caring for the things of God and to forget yourself.

What does God see when He looks at you?

The generous life is not powered by money and it does not seek human approval. And we are only conduits of material and spiritual blessings from God if we position ourselves accordingly. Are you in that position?

Remember, He is responsive when wanted.