I Wanna Be Like Mike

Thinking like God is both a noble desire and a dangerous quest. When we read the circumstances surrounding what separated us from God in the first place, it was the enemy who chided Eve - "You won't die if you eat that fruit, God's just holding out on you because He doesn't want you to be like Him..."

Wherein is the lie? Does God not want us to know His ways? Does God not want us to think like Him?

If the Bible is truly God revealed to us, then the answer must be "yes, He wants us to know His ways and to think like Him. More than 30 times in the course of the 66 books we call the Bible do we see the phrase "your ways". Each and every time, someone is talking about the distance between who we are and who God isn't. In other words, God is righteous and holy and majestic and omnipotent and we are not. The Bible also makes it clear in 1 Cor. 1.30 that we are only righteous, or "good enough", because of the substitutional sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

But, if being like God was what got us in trouble with Him in the first place, why is His word so insistent on the theme of making our ways more like His?

Adam and Eve's sin wasn't over thinking like God. I believe that it was because they wanted to think like Him for selfish reasons. The enemy broke the trust and planted a selfish thought in their hearts. Think about it, these two were walking with the God of the universe in the Garden... everyday. If they just wanted to be like Him, they'd have asked Him. Instead, the enemy sold them on the idea that God was holding out. This distrust got in the way of them consulting or confronting God on this issue.

So, today, as we lead people at work, as we lead people in marketing, sales, accounts payable, server station 2, kiosk number 5, Wal-Mart 527, or CEO roundtable 12, we must lead not from our own selfish, untrusting desire, but from a zealous, thankful, and trusting heart that understands God's ways, yet is in alignment with them also.

Where do you slip up? Where do you see selfishness get in the way of serving the Lord? If this whole Bible thing is true and God is as great as He says He is, and a God that great is worthy of being worshipped, followed, and honored, then why do you and I so frequently get stuck on what "we" want instead of what "God wants"?