Are you treating God like your assistant? (A Hard Truth About Faith and Success)

What if the way you’ve been praying, asking for success, clarity, or breakthrough, is actually missing something deeper? In this episode, we unpack a powerful and sometimes uncomfortable question: are you truly following God, or subtly expecting Him to follow you?

Through a memorable and thought-provoking conversation, you’ll discover the difference between living for God and simply asking Him to support your plans. This episode may challenge how you define and go for success, but it will also give you a clearer and more meaningful way to pursue it with faith at the center.

In this episode, your host Steve Harrison interviews Gerald Robison.  Over his 44-year career, he’s been a pastor, missionary, evangelist and the International Training Manager for Walk Thru the Bible Ministries.  He is the author of many books including: CAT & DOG THEOLOGY, 30 SECONDS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE, THE INN KEEPER, BEFORE I WAS JESUS, and THE FINAL CURTAIN: How Do You Want to Die?  For more info go to www.GeraldRobison.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Did you ever meet somebody who impresses you without their trying to impress you? Steve Harrison here. Welcome to this episode where I want to tell you about somebody I met recently. Uh, there was something about him, maybe it's his humility, his faith, his love for the Lord. It all just really inspired me. And here's how it happened. The other day I was looking at my calendar and I see this name, Gerald Robison, on my calendar. And I'm thinking, who is this guy? You know, why is he on my calendar? Well, I check with my staff, and it turns out that Gerald is one of our clients here at authorsuccess.com. My team had been working with him to get his new book written and published. And because he had just recently enrolled in another one of our programs in which he's entitled to uh some consulting with me, my team set up a first appointment so we could get to know each other. And well, we get on Zoom and we start speaking, and right away I really like this guy. He's a man in his 70s, and it's just real clear that he is a man of faith, of wit, wisdom. Um, and I just really liked him. I, you know, I discovered that he's not just an author, he's actually been a minister and a missionary. He's been a pastor of five different Baptist churches on three different continents. Uh, he has spoken and taught around the world as one of the top trainers for walk through the Bible. I think I saw he spoken in over 25 different countries. Um, and he's been he's had a lot of life experience. I mean, he's been a radio DJ, he's been a manager of a sporting goods store, even holds a black belt in judo. So somebody with a lot of life experience, and he he understands the tension that sometimes comes up when we're trying to succeed and achieve, and also trying to serve God. So I decided to interview him for about an hour, and today I'm gonna play you an excerpt of that interview. It's about 15 minutes, and I think you'll find it enjoyable and encouraging, and it may also be a bit of a cold splash of water that you and I both need as well. So I'll play you this 15-minute excerpt. Now, the first thing you'll notice when you hear his voice is that he sounds like he has a lisp, which is surprising for someone whose livelihood has depended so much on speaking and communicating effectively. So I began the interview actually by asking him about uh this, and uh with his characteristic humor, uh he responded. So here's the interview.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Well, I was notified that I had tongue cancer. Now that's not one that's very well known. In fact, you don't find people taking up collections to solve the world-wide problem of tongue cancer. And um, I'd never heard of it. The doctor said that has to come out. And I said, What has to come out? He said, The cancer. I said, Wow, I thought you meant my tongue. He said, Well, that's where it is. It has to come out. My whole tongue? He says, We I don't think so, but we won't know until we get in there. After the surgery, he said, You were quite lucky. We had some tongue material. When we took away part of your tongue, uh, that left an open wound, so we had some tongue material that we grafted on. It would be like a living band-aid. And I thought, oh, that's interesting. Well, wait, you said tongue material. What is tongue material? He said, Well, it's tongue material. I thought, okay, where do you get tongue material? He said, Well, we got it from a cadaver. And I thought, oh, a dead guy? He said, Yes, he wasn't using it anymore. Well, with that information, I was satisfied and um uh I I found it a good excuse. I told folks, because I don't know who gave that tongue, if I say anything offensive, it's the other guy talking, not me. Because I don't know if they were a Christian or not. I also figured out I don't know if they were a man or a woman. But I noticed I seem to talk a lot more now. Well, some years later, uh the cancer returned. This time they took part of my arm and grafted, they made that into a tongue, half a tongue, and grafted that in as a permanent fixture. And um most preachers start off with, you know, at some point in the preaching, they put the foot in the mouth. Well, I start with my arm in there. And so for the last two years, I've been teaching my arm to talk. Some people ask me what accent. I said, I don't have an accent, I have a lisp that's from a surgery teaching my arm to talk.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

I love that. Uh wow, wow. Well, you um, you know, I think people just can get from just a little you shared there a real sense of your humor. And, you know, you're known, um, you're very well known for this concept of cat and dog theology. Um, talk about what is cat and dog theology.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Well, we look at Christians and we wonder why is our relationship with God kind of out of sorts? And we thought, you know, it's kind of like a cat and a dog. A dog will look at you and say, You feed me, you pet me, you sell to me, you love me. And he concludes, Wow, you must be God. On the other hand, a cat will look at you and say, You feed me, you pet me, you sell to me, you love me. Wow, I must be God. And so they they also say, dogs have masters, cats have staff. And so many people, Christians, well-meaning Christians, um, they'll say, God is my master, but we treat him like a staff member. We ask him to do this, watch over that, take care of this, give me that. And then when we're doing with our list of do's and don'ts for God, we say, Thank you, you can go now. That's the end of my list. And so we we find ourselves saying that we live for God, but unfortunately, we're probably living for ourselves. And you can tell by the prayers that we make: God, do this, take care of that, watch over this. And we're telling God what we want, never really listening to what he wants and finding out what is his heart desiring? What does God's heart want for mankind? Why does God want to intercept people who are going in one direction and he's going in another? He says, Come, follow me. Why is that so important? Well, when you get to know God's heart, you understand. And a dog Christian lives for God, a cat Christian lives for what God will do for them.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Wow. Well, well articulated. And I think it's it's a especially important to talk about here on this podcast, because I totally agree with you. And and yet here's the tension be interesting to explore is that this podcast, I'm constantly encouraging people to ask for God to help you because I I I see where He does so often answer that prayer. And yet, if that's all the relationship is, and if it's even first and for foremost, it's probably not so so talk to me about that because you've worked, you've been, you've you've had a lot of different jobs, you've worked in radio. I guess sometimes I feel like ministers and missionaries kind of say, oh, well, you really shouldn't pray to make a sale, or you shouldn't really pray to be able to help write that book, or you shouldn't be able to, you shouldn't pray to lose weight. That's selfish. That's kind of what do you think of that? Is that is that proper thinking?

SPEAKER_00 8:53

I I think it's normal thinking. It might be a better kind of thinking. Uh when I was pastoring, especially in my younger years, I would ask God, enlarge the church, bring in more people. Of course, we want more people in heaven. But as I grew older and hopefully a little wiser, I've learned that even at those times, I was asking for God to make me successful with a bigger church and more people, and therefore more money, more programs, and I was a successful pastor. In my latter years, I've changed tactics. I asked for God to help me help those people, not to help them do what they want, but help them to come in contact with him so that he brings real joy into their life, so that their heart wants and desires what God wants. Now, when you pray for God's kingdom to be successful, that has nothing to do with me. God, I want your kingdom to be successful. I want to share your word, I want your gospel preached to those people so that they may be one to you, so you can fill them with joy, so that you celebrate each other together in glory for eternity. That's very different from it's very different from helping me make this sale. Now, if you're selling something that does enhance that person, maybe it's okay to pray, Lord, may your will be done in the life of this person, if this will help them progress successfully towards you and your kingdom, so if they become more like you. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

So so I guess what's interesting is we agree that if the whole relationship with God is asking for what I want in God's Santa Claus, and as you say, especially once we get, okay, well, I'm done with you, your staff, that is not the that's not the way, the truth, the life. We we totally agree on that as we get our heads around it. At the same time, I know somebody who just recently went to a job interview and they put send out a text, hey, please pray for me that I uh for this job interview, you know. And look, it is in scripture, grant me success, you know, and I feel like people aren't encouraged enough to pray for what they the desires of their heart. Absolutely, God comes first. But I feel like there's a lot of people where, okay, well, hey, if it's not about the gospel, I don't need to pray about this podcast. I don't need to pray about writing this book, I don't need to pray and ask God to help me lose weight. That's a selfish prayer. That doesn't have anything to do with people coming to know the Lord. So I'll just I'm on my own there. But if we're talking about revival, okay, I'll ask, I'll ask the Holy Spirit to help. What does Gerald Robeson say to me?

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Well, I I guess I would go back to the idea of what is your idea of success, you know, is it more money, more prestige, better house, more prosperity, whatever, or is it being a significant role in the kingdom of God for other people? And see, we begin to assume, I mean, we do all of us do, I think. We assume that what I want is what God wants. What if God's saying, I don't want you there? Right, right, right. What if God's saying, I've designed your path and your life over here, and you don't even know about that yet. You haven't waited for me, you haven't asked for my guidance, you haven't asked for wisdom, you've just seen what you want, and you decided that's what I want for you. Or that you can make me want that for you, yeah. Right, right, right. Um, and I I think that's where we really get off base. We have detached our lives from God to such an extent that there's a spiritual life and then there's regular life. And sometimes they come together, like on Sunday morning. But Monday through Friday and Saturday, it's me, and I ask God to bless me, to watch over me, take care of me. But again, that's in the terms that I understand about success. I'm asking God to make my life safe, soft, easy, and comfortable. Now, you if we were to try to go to the apostle Paul and say, Paul, God wants your life safe, soft, easy, and comfortable. And he says, wait a minute, you mean I didn't have to be beheaded? You mean I didn't have to go to jail? You mean my brothers didn't have to be thrown in two? You mean so-and-so didn't have to die on a cross? Sometimes life is not safe, soft, easy, and comfortable in order to fill what God desires. And some of the early Christians going to the lion's den was not safe, it wasn't soft, easy, or comfortable, but they were willing to do it if God would receive greater glory from that, by them living a peaceful life for 20 more, 30 more years. And we don't think about that very often. We we think about well, God will be more blessed if I'm here to deliver my messages or write more books for another 10 years, yeah. Therefore, this is God's will.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Well, what if it's not? So, um, if somebody came to you for advice, maybe you're the pastor of their church, or they just know you, and let's say they say, look, I've got kids in college, I need to pay for their either college, I've got a a uh a business, and we've we've got this new competitor now, and we're really up against it, and I am just really stressed. I'm working all these hours, but I have employees, and I I I feel like I'm supposed to be doing this business, but I'm scared, and I want to pray that God helps me and and provides revenue. Is that what would you say to them? How should they pray? Is that a is that okay? What would your advice be?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Uh uh I was assuming that they are on the right track. That you said that they're saying, I feel like this is what I'm supposed to be doing, but I am stressed to the max. Right. Okay. I would say more power to you. If this is what you really believe, and you know within your heart of hearts, this is God's design, this is your place in this world, and this is where you will live and work for the kingdom of God. Part of the responsibility that comes with that is taking care of your family, taking care of your employees, taking care of the employees' families, becoming successful. Therefore, that fear, that stress should drive you to a reliance on God. God, I'm in the place that you designed for me. These are the gifts that you gave me. I'm putting them to work for you. I want to do what's right in your eyes, and in the eyes of those people I'm responsible for. Father, please give me wisdom. Give me your spirit to guide my steps. Help me to make up for the mistakes that I make and to do it well. May every decision I make be honorable to you and in the sight of men. I think it's good to go.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Wouldn't those last few sentences make a great prayer? Well, in a few minutes we'll actually close with those lines as a prayer, but you know, there was a lot to uh just remember from those 15 minutes. There was a lot packed in to what he shared. So let me review a couple things. Um, he talked about cat and dog theology. Dogs have masters, cats have staff, and too often we treat God like he's staff. Okay, you can go now. We are to treat him as master. He asked a question, he said, you know, what is God's heart desiring? What a great question to live by, to ask more often in our day. What is God's heart desiring right now? He also shared a prayer, he you know, he shared a motivation, and the way he expressed it, he said, you know, as a as a pastor, missionary, he says, help me help them come in contact with you so they desire what you want for them. Isn't that beautiful? Help me help them. Think about that, friends, people you know, to just pray that prayer. Help me help them come in contact with you so that they desire what you want for them. And he also said, pray for God's kingdom to be successful. We often think about how we can be successful. Are we praying and focused on God's kingdom being successful? He said, What is your idea of success? More money, bigger house, or being a more significant role in God's kingdom. And then when I asked him about, well, what about praying for a job? And is that wrong? And he said, Well, what if God's saying I don't want you there? You know, he's uh, you know, are we all we're so often saying prayers essentially saying I want life to be safe, soft, easy, and comfortable. But sometimes that's not what God has planned for us, right? And and then we talked about you know, uh situation, you know, where what if you're okay, you're in business and and you're you've got some fear and stress. He said, Yeah, the fear and stress should drive you to to rely on God to help you. And it's it reminded me of that uh Proverbs 3:5, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. We all face forks in the road every day, decisions to make or not make, you know, and when it comes to living for God, it's not always easy, but the willingness is everything. Even if you're not sure right now, if you're doing what God wants you to do, you know, you may have questions, you may have doubts, but at least decide that you want to know his will and that you want to do it, and that you want to love and serve him. And even if you don't know exactly what that is, or you just can't find the the motivation to to perhaps do what you know you should do, are you willing? Ask him to help you. Are you willing to have him guide you and just share that with him and say, Help me, help me. I can't even I can't even get myself to want to do what I know you want. Help me. Yeah, look around you and know that the Lord is near, he will take you from where you are to where he wants you to be, and you can trust him. The road will not always be easy, there will be struggles, there will be trouble, there will be temptation, but trust that God will work all things for good because he's a good master. He is a good father. I want to close by having us say a prayer together, and um please repeat these words after me. Say them aloud. Uh, you can speak softly if people are around you, but give yourself The gift of saying them aloud. And these are the actual words that Gerald shared at the very end of that interview. So repeat after me. God, I'm in the place that you designed for me today. These are the gifts that you gave me. I'm putting them to work for you. I want to do what's right in your eyes. And in the eyes of these people, I'm responsible for. Give me your spirit to guide my steps. Help me to make up for the mistakes that I make and to do it well. May every decision I make be honorable to you and in the sight of others. Amen. As Gerald said, when you come from this motivation, you're good to go. So get to work and with the Lord, make it a great day.