God, I'll do anything, if...

"I'll do anything, Lord, if you just keep me from drowning. Tell me what to do."

That's the prayer of fear-based religion. For many people, that's their view of God. That's how they pray: "Lord, I'll do anything if...". Good people. People in church. Sincere people. "Lord, I'll do anything if you give me this career. Anything if you give me this relationship."

The trouble is that if you pray "Lord, I'll do anything if", you can't do the one thing God wants you to do, which is to love him without any "ifs".

You see, when you pray "Lord, I'll do anything if...", what's on the other side of that? It's your real God. It's what you really look to for security, for significance, for meaning, for hope, for joy. You're trying to use God as a means to that end.

But God will not a means to some other idol. Relationship with God is not a means, but the end we use our means to work towards. God himself is our end.

John Hudson, from his talk on Jonah 1 (you can find it here)