One of the greatest mistakes ofthe church is to offer Jesus to people solely on the same basis that a salesman offers a product to consumers. Come to Jesus – He’ll save you from hell, fix your marriage, get your kid off drugs, heal your diseases, take away your depression, make you powerful in word and spirit, give you a good job and a nice house. Jesus certainly saves people from hell, and He can do all the other things too.
It’s not wrong to come to Jesus initially for what He can do for us. The problem is that many of us never progress beyond this stage. What if He doesn’t fix our marriage or get our kids off drugs? What if He lets us go bankrupt? If our primary interest in Jesus revolves around what He can do for us, than when He “fails” to meet enough of our perceived needs, we’ll leave Him or become embittered. Many of us in the church can’t seem to get past the stage of desiring Jesus for what He can do for us. We are so dazzled by Jesus’ ability to provide for us that we can’t see the loveliness of His Person. He is infinitely wonderful in Himself, worthy to be loved and adored even if He never does a single thing for us…
God makes it easy for us to reject Him because He wants us to choose Him for Himself alone. It is perhaps one of the universe’s greatest mysteries that the Son of God wants a friendship with us. He will not force Himself on us. We must choose Him for our friend and then pursue Him for the rest of our lives if we want that friendship to grow.
(Jack Deere, Surprised by the Voice of God )