Back To Home Page To Archives - Spring of Life - H. Roger Bothwell Bargaining With God Last evening in a large grocery store I witnessed an event that surely occurs a thousand times a day across the land. A small child about 5 years old stood in front of giant gumball machine begging her mother to please put in the quarter. (Yes - a quarter for a gum ball! Amazing!) What the little girl was saying reminded me of many prayers I have heard through the years. She said, “Please, Mama, I’ll be good. I promise I will do everything you tell me to do.” Now where have we heard that line before? Could it be an adult praying, “Oh, Lord, please let me win the lottery and I promise I will share it with the church, the poor and my relatives. I will be so good. I will only keep a little for myself.” How often do we try to bargain with God? If only He will give us something we will give something back. I am tempted to say this does not work because God will not bargain with us. But I remember the story of Abraham bargaining with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But that really is different. God must laugh at us sometimes when we attempt such foolishness to try to gain some selfish advantage. He has told us to call Him Father. He is a good father. He will only give us what is good for us to have. We need to be good for the sake of being good. Why? Because it is good for us. God has never asked us to do anything that is not to our advantage to obey. He only ever and always has our best interest at heart. So as the old Christmas song goes, “Be good for goodness sake.” Oh, by the way, the little girl in the store got her gum ball. A purple one. I'm Roger Bothwell and my address is hrb1@tiac.net or 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453. Thank you for your support of our faith ministry. Past devotionals can be accessed at Archives