When I was a little boy, I often watched a movie about Jesus in which He fell three times while carrying the cross to Golgotha. I was a young adult when I learned that the Bible doesn't record Jesus falling three times at all and that this was a false belief.
As children and into adulthood, we're taught that there were three wise men (really, occultists (so, there's also the question of why God broadcast Jesus's birth first to occultists)) who came to see Jesus at His birth. But the Bible never says there were only three. The belief there were only three probably came from the fact that the Bible only names three of the gifts they brought: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
We all grow up with beliefs, some true and some false, that we never challenge. This is your chance to challenge the belief that is in the subconscious of basically everyone in existence-- that God 'takes away' good things from people. Here's an example from the Bible that acknowledges that God's people's are usually prone to not listen to or obey Him
and why this is so often the case (which is the important part)
:
"As the Holy Spirit says: 'Today, if you will hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where
your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘
They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest'" (Hebrews 3:7-11).
Summary/interpretation of that: this is taken from the OT (and quoted in the NT as it still applies today) where God told His people not to turn away from His voice, leading, prompting. Though they saw His
works, they didn't want to follow Him. Why? Because they didn't know His
ways (His character) and therefore did not trust Him. They believed He wanted to take from them (ie. their time, energy, all the things you 'give up' to someone who is lord over you).
A kid in middle school comes to school one day with some skittles. He eats them discreetly, because he's thinking, "I don't want anyone to see me and ask me for any" or "I don't want to have to give anyone any." But one kid spots him and asks for some. Now, the kid's thinking changes to, "If I give him some, then I'll have to give everyone else some." At this point, he has two options: a.) say no at the outset to the kid who asked and so be relieved of the burden to give anyone any skittles at all, or b.) give the kid who asked some skittles and be prepared to give the other kids if they get word and come asking.
The above is how people generally think,
latently. It was how God's people thought in the OT. It was how God's people thought in the NT. It's how God's people think now. It's in our human nature to not trust God and to think He wants to take from us (especially because Jesus said to deny all, etc., and knowing how people would take it, He purposely spoke harsh words like those for a specific reason (see John 6)).
What most christians do to counteract God's voice and prompting is that they 'say' no to Him at the very outset, because if you say no at the start, it's easier to say no every time afterwards. But if you say yes, and the more you say yes, the harder it is for you to say no later. Furthermore, the mindset is that if you say yes to God, then He will be taking up a lot of your time and expecting you to do more and more things, especially because most others aren't doing it and so you're one of the few doing it and so must do the work of many who are saying no.
God knows that most people subconsciously don't trust Him, don't believe He's good, and think He wants to take away from their quality of life, etc., and that this is often why people don't follow Him. He explains one of the foundational reasons people harden their hearts when He speaks to them:
"They always go astray in their heart, and
they have not known My ways."
God's
ways are His character or who He is as a person, not to be confused with what He does or doesn't do. People who don't draw near to God and get to know His
ways can't really trust Him, naturally,
because they don't know Him. Most of the Israelites didn't know His
ways (character) and most christians don't either but wouldn't 'draw near' to Him like Moses to discover it:
"He made known His
ways to Moses, His
acts to the children of Israel" (Psalms 103:7).
When people don't know God, they always "go astray in their heart" which means that from the inside out (starting in their character or true beliefs about God and manifesting in their lifestyle or life choices), they don't trust Him. And because they don't trust Him, they don't listen to Him (they harden their hearts) when He comes calling. So why is God angry enough to declare, "They will never enter My rest" for christians who don't trust Him? Afterall, you can't help who you trust or don't trust. Because God knows that there's trust that's automatic and then there's trust that is built. He's angry at people
don't take the time to build trust with Him and who are poised to say, like the man who didn't use his one talent in the parable,
"I knew that You were a hard man." (He
knew. For him, it was established for him as fact that his lord was untrustworthy.) They think they not trusting automatically will be justifiable enough. Problem is that neither did they want to build trust in God through faith in His Word.
All this is to say that there are beliefs we all were born with, grew up with, or acquired through life but that aren't factual. One of the main ones is the latent belief that a.)
God is not good; from that belief comes the next one: b.)
God is not trustworthy; and from that belief comes the next one: c.)
God intends to take from me (ie. to take our fun, comfort, security, time, energy, etc.). Just like we can have false beliefs about Jesus's walk to the cross and how many wise men came to Jesus in the manger, we can also latently (or consciously/overtly) believe that God takes away good things from people though the Bible never says or exemplifies it.
And crap there'd better be something, because it ain't happening much in this life!
